@lolabear_la Can you remind us which room category you booked for this cruise? I can’t remember where you posted that!
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Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom Category 8A
The 8B & 8C’s have the giant porthole windows as well, but only the one. The 8A’s are laid out to have 2 (but only a single bath in each one).
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Thank you!
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You’re welcome!
Also, I just remembered, only a very few of the 8A’s have the wall divider like we had. There are also ones that are wide open (with no wall) and some with a support pole. All the 8A’s though do have the 2 giant portholes & only 1 single bath. I learned all about them from Mousesavers (link below)
Category 8A “Mini-Suites” and Oversized/Open Plan Staterooms
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What’s For Dinner N1: Animator’s Palette
Alright before I finish up night 1, I thought I’d post the menus for anyone to play the what’s for dinner game. Our first night was Animator’s Palette. What are you having? You can have as much as you can eat from any of the food at no additional cost. All drinks listed are an additional cost.
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I had the black truffle pasta, the tuna steak and the sticky toffee pudding. That was probably my favourite meal on our last cruise but I think they either changed the tuna dish or I got one that wasn’t cooked as well because it was only okay. The pork chop was quite popular with my family.
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Renting a home to keep things in is actually brilliant. It takes away so much of the packing stress.
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Molly and Alan are really the nicest people. We met them at DHS lasts year. Glad you all got that opportunity!
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Glad it did not disappoint!
It was so cool and something we didn’t ever figure we’d get to do! They truly seem like they have so much fun doing what they do & are always a hoot.
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That’s a solid lineup. My favorite at Animators is the truffle pasta, but the salmon tartare is the rest of my family’s favorite & I do like to too. I struggle with entrees here though. I’ve had the pasta, the tuna steak and the pork chop and all were ok, the tuna steak being the best of the 3. This time I decided to try the chicken and it was fantastic, but my family mostly all got the Teriyaki Beef Tenderloin and I had regrets. It was one our server had recommended highly and after trying a bite of theirs I wished I had listened. The dessert here is also tricky for me. I love chocolate and their 2 choclatey desserts are not the best (but the Sticky Date pudding and Lemon Icebox Pie are quite great).
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Animator’s Palette Dinner
I mentioned what I had, but here’s the photographed documentation of the whole she-shang.
The place settings are always fun in Main Dining but the Animator’s Palette ones are just so cute and Disney, all the way down to the paintbrush butter knife.
Apps
Our server recommended all but one of the apps (Tomato Tarte) and in our experience you can’t go wrong with any of the ones he recommended.
Truffle Pureseittes
Salmon Tartar
DH, me and the 2 older kids all ordered 2 apps each of some combo of these. For DD11 the Salmon Tartar is probably her favorite thing in all of the main dining restaurants.
Soup, Salad & Bread Service
I got the arugula leaves for the (small) dosage of beets and greens which we eat daily at home thanks to an uplift of our diet to include things our hearts like. The younger kids loved the sound of the cheese soup so each got one for their app and devoured them (but none of us got photos of this course).
We all enjoyed the bread course too. But the younger kids the absolute most and they were pretty full off just soup & bread before their main course even. came 
Main Course
The recommendations from our server also included a lot of the mains: the Pennete Bolognese, Grilled Tuna Steak, Herb-Crusted Pork Chop and especially & highly recommended, the Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin.
Pennete Bolognese (it’s mainly DD here but the pasta is there by her silly face
)
Jumbo Shrimp Salad (from the lighter note offerings)
Lemon-Thyme Marinated All-Natural Chicken
Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin
On past cruises, I had tried all the ones that our server recommended (but not the highly recommended ginger-teriyaki beef) and in the past those have always been my least favorite (non-dessert) item in all my main dining cruising, so I ignored all the recommendations & got the chicken. My family didn’t ignore the recommendations, DH & DS13 got the Ginger-Teriyaki and DD11 got the pasta. We all switched bites around to taste everything. The Ginger-Teriyaki was by far the best and that will be my go-to next time, especially if the server recommends it. I did love my chicken though & it was a less heavy dish and had root vegetables (yay for helping heart health!) so if you didn’t want red meat or the pasta, it’s a great choice. DH also got a 2nd entree the Jumbo shrimp salad to get his share of greens for the meal.
The younger kids each ordered a main course off the kids menu but I have no picture evidence of exactly what (my guess is Mac n Cheese but it’s also possible it was a burger or pizza).
Dessert
Our server recommended the Warm Sticky Date Pudding, the Lemon Icebox Pie and mentioned the sundae if none of those sounded great.
Crunchy Walnut Cake
Deconstructed Carrot Cake
Mickey Bars + Sprinkles
DH got 2 desserts, the walnut cake & the sugar-free one. He was curious to see what the deconstructed carrot cake was about. I don’t remember what the older kids got and they didn’t get photos of their desserts (but it’s also possible that I’m slandering them and they all had the walnut cake that DH did get a pic of). I got a Lemon Icebox cake. There’s no picture of mine because while waiting for dessert to come out, I got up to take DS7 to the potty and then ran him to kids club because he was D-O-N-E.done. with sitting at dinner and by the time I got back to my dessert we were one of the last 3-4 families and I felt the need to make sure I ate quickly to get out of our serving team’s hair. The little kids had already gotten their Mickey bars delivered before the rest of us were done with our mains, as they’ll do with the kids.
I loved my lemon icebox cake, and shared bites with the kids & tried a bite of DH’s carrot cake thing. It was actually quite good, obviously not real carrot cake good, but an acceptable substitue. So if you are sugar free and enjoy carrot-cake-like desserts, it’s worth a try.
The only “show” at dinner on the Dream or Fantasy is in Aminator’s Palette and it’s Turtle Talk with Crush at Sea & he moves around the dining room in the 2nd half of dinner. But when he’s not around, the screens are relaxing underwater views and the moonfish do a bunch of formations that you can try to guess what it is as they form it.
My kids did love that and it helped keep them mildly entertained after they were done coloring their menus and didn’t have food in front of them (or were done eating what they did have in front of them).
A few fun shots of the kids at dinner. Notice how DS13 is wearing our ONE medal from trivia (even though he’s the one that ran out first to meet Mammoth Club )
And then the very nice photographs the dinner photographers got of us
And lastly, some dining room details & artwork we got on our way out.
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Rest of Night 1
A quick recap of after dinner.
DS7 had left slightly early from dinner for Oceaneers and the rest of the kids also headed off to Edge and Oceaneers after we were all done.
That left DH & I free to enjoy what we wanted. Since the room was unpacked and we were doing zero fish extenders this cruise, I told him I knew exactly where I wanted to go: the adults areas but first, Skyline Lounge.
We each got a martini here, DH a chocolate dessert-y one & I got a fresher, lighter pear one. The menu was all digital and I don’t remember exactly what they were called on it. But they were both tasty.
And the screens in Skyline were beautiful and bigger, so much bigger than I had envisioned. We saw two cities while there: Athens and Paris. They also had bar snacks!! Because you know we were so hungry after dinner. 
We cut our Skyline time a tiny bit short to go enjoy a few scheduled activities in The Tube. We still had our martinis that we brought over so we didn’t get new drinks but enjoyed mostly watching a couple of games that happened in there (they were the same ones Molly & Alan watched in their night 1 video).
When they finished up the games and switched to the silent dance party, we scooched out to the next area of our night club bouncing.
There was a little buffet of late night snacks set out in the entry ways by the French Champagne bar and the Irish pub. DH & I each grabbed plates of a few bites and then decided to sit down in the champagne bar to listen to the piano player.
Much the bar keepers dismay we were way too full for more cocktails on top of our aperitif’s so we actually didn’t stay much longer after the 2nd one asked us what we wanted and looked dismayed that we didn’t want anything.
The piano music was lovely though! And we had to be getting the kids rounded up at midnight from Oceaneers anyway so we would’ve been leaving in another 5-10 min anyway.
Then per our family’s tradition we ordered midnight snacks from room service! We do this at least 2 nights on a 4 night cruise, and always get Mickey Bars for everyone awake and tonight everyone was up to enjoy them (plus we got the room service order placed to time it for just after midnight so the kids were all still fresh back from kids club).
And then to end the night recap, our towel animals!!
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Glad to hear you enjoyed Skyline! We had fantastic drinks there one night on our cruise. And also enjoyed snacks from the buffet afterwards. We ate ours in the Piazza as we watched the late night magician show on a screen from the Tube. It was too crowded to get a seat in there!
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Day 2 Part 1 Nas-SEA-u Day
We slept in and woke up just as the ship docked in Nassau a little bit before 9am. But we had a full day of ship activities planned so it was totally a day “at sea” for us.
We started off by going to Oceaneers Club for a bit of Open House. We passed Dr. Strange on the way and the older kids stopped for a quick meet & pic.
At the open house we were mainly there to meet C-3PO in the Star Wars room.
We also tested out missions on the pilot stations here.
The controls were very unresponsive and therefore difficult and, on some stations, impossible to select a different mission than the default, to Hoth. The footage was exactly what you see in the Hoth Star Tours sequence & the controls actually didn’t do anything here, as you went the same direction no matter what, just like Star Tours. You do get points for shooting with the trigger, I think.
It was fun to do the one time, but less so if you wanted to try other missions because you couldn’t without difficulty, change to a different mission.
After that, it was definitely time for breakfast. DH & I had Palo brunch scheduled at 10am and had planned to sit at Cabanas with the kids at 8:30ish, then meet C-3PO at 9:15am, then drop the younger kids in Oceaneers & head up to Palo but we were much too slow leaving the stateroom, so DH & I just got dressed in our Palo clothes (and shoes) from the start and we reversed the order of things.
In Cabanas, we made sure each kid had a plate, a drink and a place to sit. Then left the older kids to mind the younger ones and were off to our brunch! We did each steal a bite of 1 of the 3 the triangle hashbrowns we had gotten on one of the plates for the younger kids.
While we were at brunch the kids ate their bfast and then decided to all together play the Midship Detective agency mission we had started the day before. However, because DS13 was now old enough this cruise to get permission from DH & I to check his Oceaneer Club-age siblings in/out, he could’ve taken them to Oceaneers and gone to Edge (or any other activity he wanted). And we had left the youngers with instructions that if not everyone wanted to play Midship, they were to go to Oceaneers, but it all worked out they wanted to play.
Palo Brunch
DH & I discussed a lot beforehand whether or not to keep this reservation. We had Remy dessert also booked for this day in the afternoon which would be a tight fit to do along with the 1hr timeslot I was able to find for us to do the Goofy Golf Simulator (something my boys were SO stoked to try).
Before I decided that we would do it all, I made sure DH understood that keeping all the things meant either being in his dress-up clothes (slacks and a button-up long-sleeve) for the day from bunch to dinnertime, including the golfing right after dessert, then through the show, dinner and for dress-up night backdrop photos I was hoping to get that specific night OR a LOT of running back & forth to the room for changing in/out of his slacks for each thing that absolutely needed them (both adult dinings & photos). He said he’d be fine, & so we kept it all!
And I’m so glad we did. Brunch was so wonderful from (included) mimosa start to dessert finish. I had deliberated for weeks leading up to the cruise what I would pick remembering my favorites from our previous 2 brunches & what I still also had left to try that sounded amazing. Here’s what we ended up with.
Bread Basket - shared by DH & I
Seafood Platter Starter - DH & I each had our own
Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict - DH & I each had our own (I had SUCH a hard time deciding on eggs though as I love them all and have loved each different thing I have tried)
Margherita Flatbread- DH & I shared and only ate half ( 
) but if there were stomach space I would eat the whole dang thing. It’s so tasty.
Bloody Mary - I finished my mimosa and so got (for an additional charge on top of brunch) a brunch-appropriate drink.
Chicken Parmesan - DH & I each got our own & this dish is so hard NOT to get every single time, because it’s amazing, every single time. Breaded lightly to perfection with the most perfect cheese & sauce.
Veal Saltimbocca - DH got this is as an additional entree after high, high recommendations from our server and I tried a few bites. It was a fantastic recommendation.
Zabaglione - one of DH’s dessert choices. I had (and loved) this last year on our then-server’s recommendation. It’s cream & berries & wafer biscotti and together puts a very lovely, lighter note to the end of the meal. We both enjoyed it again.
Amaretto Chocolate Fondant (lava cake + hazelnut gelato) - DH’s other dessert choice. This one was new to us and the opposite of the Zabaglione in being a lovely light note finish. I love chocolate and so I loved it, but it’s a hard one to get (or recommend) after an already rich & filling meal. But it is absolutely a rich-chocolate lover’s (like me) dream dessert.
Panna Cotta Pot - one of my dessert choices. I have read so many rave reviews about this dessert so this was one I wanted to see what the fuss was about. The pearls were a little fun effect and everything about it was tasty and I enjoyed every last bite. It’s lighter (so not a rich-chocolatey) but still has a taste with the chocolate butterfly and log it rests on across the top. It has a similar feel to the Zabaglione being a sweet but not over-rich ending.
Limoncello Torte - my 2nd dessert choice. This was one thing that I had not really thought of getting in all my visions of planning ahead for Palo (I wanted to try either the Panna Cotta and/or get the Zabaglione again, and/or share the lava cake with DH, but the server recommended it and on that, and a whim, I went with it as a 2nd dessert). Very fresh and light and tasty. But even so, it was the 2nd best lemon dessert of the day, though still by far better than most any of the desserts in the main dining rooms. I would get it again if a whim struck, but would prefer any of the others we got this day.
So basically, just find another stomach (or two) for dessert because you can’t go wrong with any of it. 
We were so full from it all, but when our server was checking that we were indeed done with the half-done-flatbread before clearing the table to get ready for dessert menu presentation, I mentioned that I wished I could get it from room service later because it’s my favorite margherita pizza ever. And the server said, ‘One moment, I’ll speak with my manager and we’ll see if we can let you take this.’
And when our server took our dessert order he let us know they had put the rest of the flatbread on a fresh plate with a plate cover and would give it to us at the very end to carry out when we left. They usually don’t allow you to take the Palo food to go, so this was a very extra special surprise!
So we left happy & full & with now a little taste to bring back to any of the kids. Speaking of the kids, they had completed their whole Midship mission and had ended up back in the stateroom (on our instruction since we were close to being done with brunch by then & they wanted to go swimming after) to start changing into their swimsuits. And to boot there was only one instance of half-mutiny from DS7 during the whole time. And they were able to resolve it before DH or I had responded to the text DS13 sent about it.
And then in the room we were able to surprise them with our spoils from Palo!
Three of the kids were excited to try it, but especially DS13 was so, so happy (all his Mammoth Club watching has gotten him excited to be an adult on the cruise and a legal-drinking adult in the parks ).
Pool Deck the Day Away
This chunk of time was probably among my favorite couple of hours on the cruise. We all headed up to the pool deck for the time I told my kids would most likely be the majority of our pool deck time. The kids were running around content between slides & splash pad & pool. DH & I were set-up at a table nearby with an endless supply of fountain drinks and, crab legs.
When we got to the pool deck, Cabanas had just opened up for lunch & DH went straight for a plate of crag legs to start & every once in awhile I would pop over into Cabanas and get him a refill in between checking on the kids in their water activities. We were here for over 2 hours and he spent the better part of those hours, cracking and pulling out crab. He really, really loves it, and this is really him in his element and at his happiest.
Especially in this 
photo that I caught of him mid-demonstration showing me his method to cracking the legs as efficiently as he does.
He & I grazed on the crab, to keep space for the upcoming Remy dessert and his efforts were mostly to provide the kids lunch since we would be leaving them again for their meal. However, the kids were in full pool-play mode and not at all thinking of food, so the crab was piling up to be quite a plateful.
The crew member set to bus our section took particular notice of this and asked a couple of times as he cleared away garbage plates of crab shells, jokingly, if we needed the plate of crab meat “taken care of too” (i.e. for him to take away to enjoy).
And when we finally got the kids over to eat so we could know they ate before we had to take off to dessert, that crew member made sure to tell the kids how lucky they were to have a dad who would take that time to get them that much crab. The kids supplemented their crab with chicken, tenders, pizza and burgers from the pool side QS Flo’s V8 Cafe counters. And again, DH & I were off to an adult dining experience again leaving our kids to mind each other and eat.
Also, this time their instructions were to eat, digest a few minutes and if they still had time, swim for another few minutes, but they had to keep track of the time and be on their way to change by 3:45pm as at least 1-2 of them needed to be dried & dressed & up to the Sports Deck by 4:30pm to start our time on the golf simulator. Our dessert was estimated to last from 3-4:15 so we wouldn’t be able to help them monitor time and if they waited too late, we would be crunched. We had given the older kids the option to have the younger kids eat & go to kids club, but they decided to stay with them together on the pool deck so that they all got more time in the water and on the slides.
And that’s a good stopping point for this first half-ish of the day. I’ll leave you in suspense for a second on how Remy dessert turned out, did the kids listen on their instructions to watch their swim time, and did we still have room for dinner? 
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Sounds like an awesome day! You really made the most of Palo brunch. I thought we had a lot of different dishes but you outdid us! Can’t wait to hear about your Remy dessert experience.
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Love it! I feel full just looking at all those food pics!
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It was so much food! I was amazed at what we got (and that our stomachs didn’t revolt more!)
Since the week before Thanksgiving, DH & I have been eating much better: no added sugars, all low/no sodium, no saturated fats, better for our waistlines portion sizes and lots, lots, lots, lots more vegetables, fruits, whole grains. So part of our waffling about keeping our adult dining reservations was due to not wanting to completely derail all our progress. But we decided it was also good to reward ourselves for the progress we’ve made, and we definitely achieved that!
And now that we have been back on the wagon at home for almost 2 weeks, we’re both back to our pre-cruise weight and hoping to get another 10 or so pounds lost before the next one.
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Thanks for following along! I’m amazed that DH & I didn’t gain more weight during the cruise with all the cruise eats we took full advantage of.
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Okay, what is this?
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I love the kids’ matching pj’s and impressed you got the older ones to participate! 
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