February 14, 2015 – Bless Your Heart

We slept in a little after our big day yesterday in Key West so we didn’t get up until about 9:15am. Slapped some clothes on really quickly and ran down to the Future Cruise Desk. We were first in line. Yay! We had already booked our 2016 cruise but we wanted to see if we could get a better deal including the on board credit. We did! So we saved a bit of $$ AND got $200 on board credit for Jan 2016. Yay!

We went back to our room and dressed for brunch at Palo! There’s a debate on every cruise which is better? Palo Brunch or Palo dinner? I’ll take em both! They are both amazing! But let’s talk about brunch first. Palo is the adult’s only restaurant on all the Disney ships. It’s Italian and incredible. You’re required to dress up, which I love. We don’t get out to fine dining establishments that often so I like putting on the ritz a bit! Although brunch is more casual than dinner, men are still required to wear nice pants (no shorts) and no flip flops.

Brunch is a buffet and then you can order things like pizza and chicken parmesan (the best chicken parm you’ll ever have) or eggs benedict from the kitchen. Here’s CSP’s plate from the cold buffet. It truly is a seafood lover’s dream! Mariana from Mexico was our server and we enjoyed her so much I went to the manager and asked to be seated with her at our dinner reservation later in the week. Then I asked if there happened to be any openings for any of the other nights. We lucked out and they had an opening for tonight! But back to brunch. You get a cocktail with your brunch. CSP chose prosecco and I chose Kir Royale. Mainly because I have a Buxom lipgloss with that name and I’ve always wondered about it. It was pretty good, but I’m not a huge champagne fan. Oh! and the sticky buns! You must try a sticky bun! So good.

One thing that impresses me with Palo is their attention to detail. It can get warm with the sun coming through those big windows in Palo so look how they ice the tea! With frozen tea! No watered down tea! Genius!

Now after brunch is the best part. The sweet wee little desserts!

This one is fruit and CHAMPAGNE JELLO BITS. Again- genius!!! They are all bite sized desserts so try them all! Brunch lasts a good two hours! When we were finished we headed back to the room. I ran into a member of our cruise group delivering Fish Extender goodies. It was fun meeting her and bonding over our Fish Extender experience.

CSP and I changed out of our nice clothes and went up on deck. We found some chairs in the adult section called Quiet Cove and read/napped the afternoon away!

I could see the AquaDunk tube sticking out over the ocean from my deck chair.

My view- not too shabby! Next thing we knew it was time to shower and dress for dinner!

Back at Palo!

Dinner service is very different from brunch. Much more formal. They wait on you hand and foot and treat you like royalty! Dinner starts with anti-pasta. Artichokes, roasted peppers, olives, parmesan cheese, proscuitto, and cured beef. Topped with flavored olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The artichokes are just fantastic. They also bring you a fancy bread basket with warm garlic pizza bread and bread sticks.

For my appetizer I chose pesto grilled shrimp. CSP chose his favorite soup- cippino. It is chock full of seafood. Mussels, shrimp, scallops, the works!

Between appetizers and entrees they bring you an intermezzo- lemon sorbet to cleanse your palate.

For our entrees we both chose risotto. CSP got the Risotto di Mare (risotto of the sea) with all the same sea creatures as his cippino, just on creamy risotto instead of a broth. Topped with zucchini strips. I chose the Wild Mushroom risotto.

CSP said his was incredible and I had a taste of his risotto- he was right! Mine was super good too. Very VERY mushroomy. We split a half portion (3 pieces) of lobster & marscapone ravioli. They make their own pasta in house! SO creamy and tender.

Dessert time! CSP chose the tiramisu. How cute is his cookie spoon?? I chose the Panna Cotta with macerated berries. The best custard I’ve ever had. Unreal.

But wait….it’s not over! They bring out sgopino. It’s a digestive aid frosty shot. Really good actually.

We walked (slowly) back to the room and changed into casual clothes. Then we went shopping! It was Formal Night so everyone was busy with their dinners so the ship’s shops were empty. Perfect timing! We bought a t-shirt for CSP’s mom and one for his dad too to thank them for house and pug sitting. We bought a 2015 magnet (we buy one on each cruise). And then I spied a t-shirt with a sugar skull on it! Just then CSP handed me a black Tervis tumbler. I turned it around and it was perfect!!!

HOW COOL IS THIS?!?!? A Disney Cruise Line Tervis tumbler 24 oz with a SUGAR SKULL on it?!?! It says “Cruisin’ It’s In My Bones”. LOVE. Once our purchases were made we high tailed it back to our room to go to sleep. When we got back to our room we had a new towel animal (a seal??) and some Fish Extender goodies. Luckily our new friends the McC’s gave us a bag to use as our Fish Extender (more on this later I promise).