Day 15: 5 of 5 consecutive sea days.

BRACE FOR IMPACT- it's a long one!
Today was our 5th consecutive sea day. You may be wondering if we're ready to see land. Nope. I could have another 5 more sea days. I love it! Today's weather was absolutely gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky and it got up to the mid 80s. We haven't seen any rain... it's just been perfect. The seas today were just as calm as all the other days, but my mom was feeling a little off on & off today. (well, that was confusing to type!) We don't think it's sea sickness, as the sea feel exactly the same as the last 4 days. I think she didn't eat enough with her pills she takes in the morning. By the end of today though she felt fine.
Well, as you know I've been sleeping like an 80 year old since getting on the ship but I have now passed an 80 year old's sleep pattern and entered an ungodly sleep pattern. I woke up, WIDE awake, at 3:30am!!!!!!! I have no idea what's going on. Last night was our last night to change our clocks back. I went to bed at 10:30pm and got up at 3:30am! We are now in the eastern time zone, so I better get working on this situation, as getting up at 3:30am at home is not an option. So I laid in bed for quite a while watching TV. It was exciting to finally have american tv stations. Today we got close enough to land to be able to receive the satellite. For the last couple of days the TV has been all movies or sitcoms on a loop. Today we had CBS, Travel Channel, ESPN, Disney Channel (of course) and some others. Only problem is there is absolutely nothing on on TV at 3:30am. So I watched a portion of Iron Man 2 for the 30th time and then watched a little of Michael Jackson's, This Is It, for the 10th time. FInally, I just decided to get up and started to get ready for the day. There's only so much to do to get ready for a day by the pool, so I ironed some more- oh my gosh, I'm turning into my dad! Ironing at 4:30am. Great! God help me. Finally it was late enough to head upstairs with my dad for breakfast. Actually it wasn't- we got there 30 minutes before the restaurant even opened, so we headed to get seats by the pool.
My mom met us up at the seats a little later and then my dad & I headed to breakfast. I had a bowl of fruit and basically forced every bite down. I don't know why I even bothered. My dad just got two pieces of toast and headed for the egg station, leaving me totally alone, which bothered me, UNTIL I ran into my favorite guy, Daniel. He talked with me while I was on the line and then asked for my mom. It was cute. Next I went to find my dad and I ran into another waiter that has been visiting us each night. He's not our waiter but we met him on the first day in the buffet and he's been visiting us ever since. He is hysterical and it's funny to watch our waiter make fun of him. He's always getting in trouble and it's just hysterical. For example. Today, as I left Daniel, I turned the corner to see him up ahead. He turned and saw me, waved and then started to walk towards me. As he turned a passenger holding two cups of coffee turned and the waiter walked right into him spilling the coffee everywhere. I was so embarrassed for him. He turned to apologize to the passenger and then ran into the kitchen. 
Finally I found my dad at a table. After he finished his eggs and I forced down the last bit of fruit I could we headed out, first looking for our waiter and assistant waiter. Our waiter is great, but our assistant waiter, Renaldo, is the highlight of our cruise. We found our assistant waiter just before leaving and talked with him a while. He's so funny. I wish I could explain him for you, but it won't do it justice. 
Next we headed back to my mom. We get to my mom where she was saving our seats and decided that she does want breakfast. So I turn around and go back with her, leaving my dad at the seats. Talk about repetition. We head back and I go through the line with her. We find a table, she eats, we go to leave and we run into Daniel (bummer *insert sarcastic cough here*). After talking with Daniel for a while and promising him that we were going to the cooking demonstration again today, we run into our favorite little guy, our assistant waiter, Renaldo. We talked with him for a while. He was standing handing out those sanitizing wipes they make you use every time you go into a restaurant. Handing out the trays at the start of the buffet line was that other waiter I was telling you about- the one who spilled the coffee, Pierre. Well, our assistant waiter, Renaldo, knows EVERYONE and has a nickname for everyone. So he was making fun of Pierre to us- in a playful way. They're friends. Then I told Renaldo about Pierre & the coffee spill and he want hysterical. It was very funny.
After that my dad headed to a lecture on Tortola- where we're going in a few days. My mom and I stayed by the pool until it was time to head to the cooking demonstration. This was the last one by this special guest chef, so my mom brought our menus that they had given us. Two nights ago we had a special Transatlantic Menu and they gave us the menus as a souvenir. They're really pretty so I was excited to get them. We had our waiters sign them- which was probably the funniest moment of the entire trip. Sorry again- you had to be there. So we brought our menus to have the guest chef sign them... as well as Daniel, our favorite restaurant manager. The chef cooked a chicken "Foie Gras". It's basically a chicken liver paste that you put on toast. It was good but he put a cucumber jello type stuff on top that I didn't think was necessary. My mom liked the top part though. So after it was over my mom headed up to wait on the huge line for the autograph, leaving me by myself. That lasted about 10 seconds. I looked down at my recipe and when I looked up there was Daniel. He asked how I liked it and I told him how I felt about the top part and that was exactly how he felt. I was glad to hear, because I thought I was just being picky. I reminded him that we wanted him to sign our menus, so he waited with me until my mom got back. My mom finally got the chef's signature and then it was Daniel's turn. When he saw how our waiters has signed them he was hysterical, so we had to explain the whole thing. Basically (this won't read funny at all- you have to know these guys, but here it goes) our assistant waiter, Renaldo, signed my menu, but he had to draw me something extra, so he drew a Philippines flag, as he's... you guess it- he's from the Philippines. Next our head waiter, "Z" signed it. Now these two together are like a Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis. Our head waiter, "Z" is serious & sad looking. He has a dry sense of humor so it perfect. Well he sees what Renaldo drew so he decides he has to draw something too. So he signs it and draws a picture of Renaldo with a little thinking bubble over it's head & wrote "Renaldo" in it. He then tells us that it is Renaldo thinking about Renaldo, 'cause that's all he's ever thinking about. You had to be there. We were crying we were laughing so hard.
So now Daniel sees this and it starts the whole thing again and we had to explain it all over again. He signs it and then we head to meet my dad for lunch at the buffet where we run into both of our waiters again. We joked with them a bunch and then my mom & I headed back down to cooking demonstration area where they were doing a little "lesson" on how to throw a dinner party. Really the whole thing ended up just being, how to set a table & then rest of the time was all about wine. Once it was done we headed straight over to the theater where Don "Ducky" Williams (the Disney illustrator for 30 years) was doing another presentation and raffling off all the sketches he drew while telling his story. The only reason we went was to hopefully win a sketch, as we had already heard his story. Of course, we didn't win one.
After that my parents went to see Toy Story 3 3D and I just headed to my room. It's been two weeks and my pedicure was suffering, so I painted my toe nails and finger nails. I know... pivotal information. After that I got ready for dinner and the show.  The show was very good. It was all about Walt Disney. It was cool how they did it. The used old footage and the cast to act out scenes. It was just really done well. I really love Walt Disney so I could listen to or watch stuff about him all day. Talk about an amazing man!
After the show we headed to dinner. I forgot to mention yesterday, as we headed to dinner we walked past one of the cruise director's staff. They are like the MCs of all the games and activities. They do all the parties and stuff like that. Well, I walk past one of them that really I had only seen from afar the whole cruise. Maybe twice we said hello in passing. Well, as I walked past him he said, "Hey Lisa". Talk about freaky. I have no idea how he could even figure out my name. Fast forward to tonight. We're headed to dinner and we pass by this same guy. As we walk by he goes, "Hello Rose". We are still completely miffed by this. If he wasn't so nice I'd really be freaked out by it. I mean there's 2,700 passengers on board. I have no idea how he knew our names. Anyway.
We headed to dinner where we were visited tonight by EVERY waiter we have made friends with on this cruise. Usually, we get one who comes to visit. Tonight our table was the place to be. The table next to us must think we're someone special or something 'cause of all our visitors. Tonight we saw them all. The one that was most special even came by. 
My family went on our first Disney cruise in 2007. We still remember and talk about our two waiters from that cruise. They were great. Well, our first day aboard when I went to that emergency drill by myself, my emergency drill leader was our assistant waiter from 2007. He remembered my face but couldn't picture my family. So this whole cruise we've been watching for him for my parents to see him, but he's in a different dinning rotation than us. So at dinner we'd talk to Renaldo about him. Renaldo of course knows him (he knows everyone & has a nickname for everyone). So we had told Renaldo that we still hadn't seen Raphael (Renaldo calls him a ninja turtle- cause of the name & he's always working out). So tonight we're eating dinner and Renaldo tells us to please wait that he has a special character coming just for us. Now, we're on a Disney cruise. Characters sometimes show up in the restaurant towards the end and do a little show. We just assumed it was that. As time went on and guests were leaving we realized that it wasn't that. Then some of the other waiters came over to visit and the one who spilled the coffee, Pierre, brought me a surprise. He drew a Mickey out of chocolate syrup and sprinkles. It was pretty impressive. (I took a picture) Then using Ketchup he "painted" an Ariel and Mickey in a car. It was very funny. So we thought that was it. We had literally talked to every waiter we knew, including Daniel. Next thing we know we see Renaldo (our assistant waiter) walking in with Raphael, our assistant waiter from 2007. Renaldo went downstairs and brought him up for us. It was like seeing family. As soon as he saw my parents (Really. How could you ever forget my dad??) He remembered us right away & it was like we were just with him on our first cruise. He was hugging and kissing us. Asking us how we were doing. Picking on my dad. It was really nice. We sat and talked with him for a while, and the other waiters were still coming to visit too. So our head waiter, "Z" (the dry one who looks & sounds half asleep all the time) comes over and jokes with us about everyone coming to visit our table and how we even have waiters from other rotations & restaurants coming to see us. It was great.
We left dinner pretty late- there was maybe 5 other families in the entire restaurant. I of course headed right for bed. Tonight was the first time in 5 consecutive days, 6 total, that we didn't have to turn our clocks back. That was a weird feeling. 
Talk to you soon!   

PS- After coming back to my room, I keep a dry erase while board on my door for communication with my parents really. I had a note saying, "See you tomorrow. Cabin 753?". My cabin is 7543, so apparently someone down the hall is planning to see me tomorrow, Too bad for them I'm allergic to strangers. Just kidding. (no I'm not)                         

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