Howdy and Welcome to TX, Mickey! Oct 20-27, 2012 About This Page:

[Shelley the Pooh]

Originally Posted by MontiMouse

Great start! Looking forward to more...

Thanks!

Originally Posted by mommapants

Fabulous first day. We didn't get to any shows on our cruise. I really miss that as I wanted too but between the queasy feeling I had and keeping a 5 year old happy, what can do.

More please.

I remember from reading your TR, Holly, about how miserable you felt for the majority of your trip. So sorry!!

The shows were awesome and I hope you get a redo one day so you can experience them.




I am working on the next installment and plan to have it up this weekend. When working on it I noticed the pictures were kinda sporadic and all over the place, kinda like my brain for the first few days of any trip.

Today, Steph, DMom and I are heading to a mega-holiday shopping event called the Nutcracker Market. It is really big here in Houston and we have been going every year since my baby was a baby. We mostly go to just hang out together and drink mimosas but do a little shopping too.

Sea y'all soon with another update.

[shnewell]

So jealous that you're at Nutcracker! Happy shopping!!

[lauriep]

Have a fabulous girls' day at Nutcracker, Shelley and Steph!

[Shelley the Pooh]

Originally Posted by shnewell

So jealous that you're at Nutcracker! Happy shopping!!

Thanks Shayne! We shopped til we dropped! Which, thankfully, for DMom isn't that long because Steph and me can spend some serious money there.

Originally Posted by lauriep

Have a fabulous girls' day at Nutcracker, Shelley and Steph!

Thank you Laurie and we did! DMom was actually able to make the whole thing this time. The last two years her back and legs have bothered her so much that she could only handle 3 of the 6-7 rows. Now, these rows aren't short, probably the length of a football field. We paced ourselves this year though.



The Nutcracker Market donates all its proceeds to the Houston Ballet Foundation which puts on our Nutcracker Ballet every year. We love going to the Market as it kinda kicks off the holidays for our family.

The mimosas we had were more like champagne with a splash of OJ and I mean a splash. Could have been more like a sprinkle. They were good but Steph and I could only drink two each.


We consider ourselves foodies so our purchases were pretty much just food stuffs from the Market.


Lots of dips, jams, jellies, sauces, salsas and mixes


There is a group of women, Donne Di Domani, who have been making homemade Marinara Sauce for years and only for the Market. It is usually sold out by the second day. Over the years they have been better at holding some back for each of the 4 days but they still sell out by mid-day each day. Here is what our sauce was used for last night - yummy lasagna!




Okay, I know y'all aren't really here for the small talk so let's get on with the next update! YAY!!

[Shelley the Pooh]

I actually slept better than I have on any trip for the first night so even though the beds might need a re-do, they are still pretty darn comfortable. I think the slight rockin of the ship might have helped with that too though. Neither one of us were up before 9am.

This was Battle Red Day for the Houston Texans who were playing at home. Steph and her BF, Oscar, went to the game for us. I am sure that was her hardest sacrifice while we were gone. I was so glad to see in the PN that they would be broadcasting the game in Diversions and on the Funnel Vision by the pool.










And since we couldn’t be at the game in person, I had made some door magnets to show our support on the ship. It was also Formal Night and there was a Captain’s Welcome Reception in the Atrium before each dinner time so I put a Mickey Ear Captain’s Hat over the port hole door number.




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[lauriep]

Nutcracker Market sounds like fun and that lasagne looks deeelicious!

Relaxing start to your day at sea. Glad you slept so well!

[Shelley the Pooh]

After getting cleaned up and changed, David and I went up to Topsiders for breakfast as it was the only place still serving breakfast by the time we were ready. The line was kinda long but I think that had to do with it being close to closing time and only having one side open now. It was about 10:20am by this point and I wanted to check out the Art of Entertaining Series that was beginning at 10:30 in Studio Sea. David and I weren’t really seeing eye to eye at this point either so I decided that I would excuse myself to catch the AoE event on time and leave David to get himself some breakfast.

AoE is a 3-part demonstration series where chefs prepare an appetizer, main course and dessert. And on this cruise, they added an Iron Chef/Chopped type competition at the end between two of the chefs in the series. Today’s Art of Entertaining demonstration was the appetizer: Lobster and Shrimp Martini. The recipe they handed out for the demonstration actually calls for crab too but ours had none. David made it to the event just as the chef was beginning.

The recipe:





Table tops at Studio Sea:




The Chef in action:



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[Shelley the Pooh]

The AoE also pairs the course with a wine. The wine for the day was delicious, they did a great job pairing them together. I just wish I was better at writing stuff down and documenting. Especially, when I would like to drink it again.


I had already removed the "cavier" that was on the top of the cream when I took these pictures.






The best thing about David being a meat and potatoes/picky eater kinda guy is that I get double everything of the good stuff. I had two glasses (well, tastings) of wine and two Lobster and Shrimp Martinis!

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[Shelley the Pooh]

It was getting close to Texans game time so after enjoying the wine and martinis, we headed to the pool to scope out some chairs to watch the game. It was pretty packed already but we found a couple of lounge chairs semi in the shade still. That was a blessing looking back now but soon y'all will find out it really didn’t help all that much!

I won’t go into all the game details but the Texans whooped up on the Ravens 43-13. After being out on the deck for about an hour and a half, David starting feeling bad from the heat and sun. At half time he decided to go back to the cabin and cool off. I stayed and watched the game so he could rest in quiet. It was nearing the middle of the 4th qtr and David had still not returned so I decided to go check on him. As I was walking in, he was coming towards me. He wanted to try and get something to eat and I was up for some lunch.

David got a hot dog and fries from Pluto’s Dog House, I got a roast beef mini sandwich and some fruit from Goofy’s Galley and we got a couple of Cokes from the beverage station. We decided to eat at the deck outside of Topsider’s. It was in the shade and pretty nice out there temp wise plus it was pretty quiet since Topsider’s was technically closed.






Notice my WDW cup next to my plate on the left? I loved having that thing as it would keep the drinks colder for longer than the ones provided at the drink station and they held more than those cups too.

Partial Topsiders deck and horizon


David and I were laughing about these two birds that were flying next to the boat. They were little birds like you would find at a city park and we were wondering why they would be this far out at sea unless they were hitchin a ride aboard the boat. IDK



The boat's wake. Very little! This is looking off of the deck at Topsider's . I was in awe. I loved how blue the color of the sea had become. I had never seen this with my own eyes before and it was really breathtaking!!

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[Shelley the Pooh]

Since it was formal night, we decided to head to the cabin to get showered and cool down some more from the sun. I hadn’t gotten a mani/pedi before I left home so after my shower I went to Vista Spa to have a paint job (I had brought my own color polish). While having the nails did, I noticed that the waves had picked up some. There were more white caps than a few hours earlier and the boat was swaying a bit more. I could really feel it more than before. We were a good 24 hours from Galveston at this point. I think the sea depth (which they show continuously on one of their TV stations) was around 11,000 ft. There was no more land to be seen and very few large tankers, oil rigs or cruise ships in the visible area any more either. This combined with the sun during the Texans game was the beginning of a crazy series of events for the next 24 hours.

Vista Spa Information -







$38 and about an hour later, I was heading back to my cabin to get changed for formal night’s dinner and show. When I got back to the room, the sun was behind some clouds as it was starting to set.







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[Shelley the Pooh]

Tonight’s show was Twice Charmed, an Original Twist on the Cinderella Story. We really enjoyed it but I had a hard time concentrating on some of it because I felt like I was leaning forward then leaning back, leaning forward and then leaning back. I told David, I can really feel the ship now. I had noticed that the big, beautiful curtains were moving quite a bit too and wondered how the performers get used to the movement of the ship while they are jumping and dancing around on stage. I also started to not feel well. Not quite sick but definitely not hungry for a big meal that we still had coming.

After the show, David suggested going to the room for a few minutes before dinner to relax a bit. I, however, wanted to get some of us dressed up as we NEVER dress up. Honestly, we never really go anywhere where it would be required so I wanted to make sure we had some documentation of actually doing so.

I will warn y’all though, Rudolph the red-nosed/red-cheeked reindeer shows up in these pictures and never really leaves for the rest of the trip. And it's kinda obvious that I wear sunglasses when out in the sun. Or maybe it's really Rocky the Racoon??








Tonight’s dinner was in Animator’s Palate. There was a special dinner menu for formal night called the Prince and Princess Dinner.









Sorry the pics are so blurry of the inside of the menu.

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[OhToodles!]

Sounds like a relaxing day at sea, but the sun and movement doesn't sound the best. You two look great all dressed up!

[Shelley the Pooh]

Food was really not beginning to sound good at all. I tried to sit through dinner as I really wanted to see the show in AP. After waiting awhile, I decided to ask about it and our server, Rey, told us that there wouldn’t be one because of formal night. I was a little disappointed but he assured me that we would get to see it on our next rotation in there.

I didn’t take any pictures of the food this evening, mainly because I wasn’t feeling the greatest and the food wasn’t really appealing to me. David ordered Whole Milk to drink, Lettuce with Blue Cheese Salad Dressing and fresh ground black pepper, the Grilled Grain-fed Sirloin Steak (super duper well done ) which came with Garden Vegetables and Baked Potato. This is pretty much what David ordered every night for dinner. The servers would ask if he wanted to try anything else but it was always the same. I did order The Beast’s Potato and Sausage Casserole Soup and managed a few bites. It was alright and probably would have been better had I felt better but what I did eat began to make me feel even worse. I decided to excuse myself from the table and go back to the cabin. I didn't want to ruin dinner for everyone so I suggested to David to go ahead and stay with Andy and Laura so he could finish his.

When entering our cabin, I found this hanging around. Not quite sure what it’s supposed to be though. David and I left it there the remainder of the trip and would continually laugh about it.




I changed into some comfy clothes and crawled into bed with the TV on trying to catch a little sleep. David came in a little while later and watched The Amazing Spiderman before turning in for the night. The ship was definitely still swaying A LOT.



Up Next: Tomorrow is another day at sea and a busy one at that. We had a Palo brunch reservation but noticed when we got our dinner tickets/schedule the first day that our character breakfast was to be the same morning. BOO! Fortunately, we were able to switch Palo brunch to Friday’s sea day. It actually was an awesome move seeing how tomorrow morning turns out.

[Shelley the Pooh]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Nutcracker Market sounds like fun and that lasagne looks deeelicious!

Relaxing start to your day at sea. Glad you slept so well!

Thanks Laurie! The lasagne was deeelicious! David is taking some to work tomorrow for lunch. I did sleep good and couldn't believe that I did.

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

Sounds like a relaxing day at sea, but the sun and movement doesn't sound the best. You two look great all dressed up!

It was a pretty relaxing day. I loved being able to watch the game by the pool. However, I'm sure if the Texans had lost it may have changed my view on that.

The sun and movement weren't the best mix and the movement wasn't done playing with me yet. But I do learn a valuable lesson!

And thanks so much Kelly about our formal pic. I was so at myself for letting me get so burned the first day but hey I learned a few things on this trip.

[chezp]

So sorry to hear about all the movement. Been there, done that and it's not fun. I hope it doesn't spoil your cruise too much....