Spoiled by (near) perfection

Oh, sweet reader. Have you missed me? I missed you all. Believe it or not, I did actually think about you while I was gone. I blog posted in my head and in MS Word. Disney, for all their fabulosity charged .75 a MINUTE for interwebs on the high seas. What?  Other than to tell my mom that we were all fine and to post a few quick photos on FB I was not on the interwebs.  To be honest, I was too busy.  Let me tell you a story of decadence, opulence, and pure bliss.
From the moment you board the ship, you are in another world.  A world where reality is skewed (but IMO, in a really good way).  A world where dishes, laundry and picking up after your family don't exist.  A world where food is beautiful and thoughtfully prepared and no one says they don't want to eat it.  A world of magic.  They assigned people to wait on us.  Disney's dining is set up in a rotation of 3 main restaurants.  You have other dining options if you don't want to eat in one of the 3, but if you do, you must do so on the nights designated by your rotation.  Your servers rotate with you.  Each table has 3 servers assigned to them.  Ours had, I think, 3 or 4 tables, which gave them plenty of time to spend with each one.   They knew our names, our likes and dislikes, what we would be drinking and how we liked our food prepared.  Every night, after I ordered desert, a cup of tea magically appeared in front of me.  I asked for it the first night (when given a choice of coffee or tea) and every night after that it simply appeared, with a small container of milk, not creamer.  No need to ask.  One night I didn't like what I ordered and it was immediately whisked away and a replacement meal suggested was served withing minutes.  One night Mr. HH and I couldn't decide which desserts to order, so our server brought us one of each.  Crumbs were brushed from the table between meals.  Indy's food was cut for him.  And I didn't have to do it!  What sort of wondrous place was this?
During the days at sea, Indy was taken care of while Mr. HH and I slept or sunbathed.  Indy begged to go to the "land of magic and enchantment" (as I came to think of the play place) before breakfast was finished.  He didn't want to leave for lunch or dinner.  He loved it.
Amazing shows were performed for our pleasure!  Broadway style shows with amazing sets, costumes and acting awed us.  There were magicians, singers and comedians!  How was this all possible?  Disney, my friends, Disney.  Oh, sure, there are those of you who scoff at the thought of Disney and its squeaky clean image, and you're allowed to (I think you're wrong, but that's only because you've never been so completely surrounded by the magic and are therefore unaware of what it feels like), but believe me, they know how to make a person feel pampered and special.  There were approximately 2000 "guests" on board, but they make you feel like you are the only one that really matters (which in my case is totally true, but it's nice that they make others feel like that too).
Oh, there were ports of call too.  Beautiful ones; stunning ones; amazing ones.  It was almost like a dream.  It was as close to perfection as one can possibly come in a vacation.  With one small exception.  What?  Something went wrong?  Oh, yes, sadly it did, and no, it wasn't Disney's fault.  The night before we were to disembark, I started feeling ill.  It was right around midnight (how very Cinderella of me) when it hit.  What was it?  Oh, it was an evil, evil thing called gastrointestinal virus.  Oh, that's right: the dread of all cruise ships.  Fortunately for me it didn't strike until the last night of the cruise.  If it had struck on the first or second night, I would been put into isolation for 3 days (the ship doc told me this), and the voyage would have sucked.  As it was though, it was our last night, so all was well (you know, except for the actual getting home).  I have many, many more posts to come with photos galore, but here's just a small taste.

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