Day 7 on the cruise - 2nd day in Kauai (Part 2)

We decided to switch gears and attend the Magic 101 with Charles Bach presentation. Unfortunately, Charles had lost his voice between his last magic show and today but he made the best of it for this small class on how to do sleight of hand tricks. We each were given a kit of props containing a cloth napkin, two toothpicks, two rubber bands, a handful of playing cards, and a large fake coin. 

Charles talked us through the same toothpick in the napkin trick he performed during his show. We also learned how to use the coin in the napkin to make it look like we'd made it push through the napkin. The playing cards were for a trick that you altered how you picked up the other rows of cards so that the card the person chose always came up in the same spot even though the only thing you'd been told was what row their chosen card was in. The rubber bands were for a trick where you laced them over your fingers and then after a hidden to the audience way of bending your fingers, the rubber band jumps to the other fingers when you open your hand back up. Charles was very patient redoing some of the tricks a couple times and walking around helping the group when people had trouble.

When it was time to meet back up with Adam and Amy for dinner, it took us a long time to find La Cucina. Turns out we walked right past the small turn we needed to make after getting directions from the Brazilian steakhouse across the deck. When we checked in at the podium, we learned that Adam and Amy had already arrived and were seated waiting for us. They had been seated at one of the raised booths and my first thought was how fun that would be to try and shimmy into. Dad offered to try and pull out the table but I opted for the slide approach. Amy and I ended up next to each other along the back and the guys faced each other on the ends. Immediately we noticed an uptick in service level from tonight's waiter to the point that he actually seemed fearful that I wasn't satisfied after not finishing all of my appetizer. It took a lot of convincing to have him believe I simply wanted to save room for my entrée. Adam and Amy both ordered sodas and they had new ones brought to them before they could even finish the current glass. The waiter kept encouraging us to try more dishes and order more things. Amy and I went with the calamari to start and I've never been a fan of when they include the pieces that look like the squid swam up and jumped into the oil on his own.

When Amy and I also both mentioned we wanted to order the carbonara pasta (this time it was a pleasant surprise when the menu differed from the TV version), our waiter offered to bring that and the shrimp diablo pasta dish. I thought that meant we'd each get two entrée size plates but instead he brought one entrée sized plate of each and two small plates for us to dish out a sample for the other person.

The shrimp diablo pasta was surprisingly not very spicy with more of a cheesy creamy taste. Adam ended up ordering a pepperoni pizza and the waiter wrapped the rest up for him to have back in the cabin. I did notice another table get their pizza wrapped up to go as well after they'd ordered it not realizing how full they'd get on the other food. Not loving anything on the dessert menu, I asked about having some vanilla ice cream and the waiter probably would have churned it himself for me if he could. When Dad offered his card to be scanned for the extra charge sodas Adam and Amy had, our waiter refused to take it insisting that the meal was complimentary. Mr. McLurkin appears to make sure we were well taken care of tonight as he had made sure the staff treated us well. He also confirmed that he'd comped our meal and apologized again for the lunchtime issues. He shared his appreciation about us reporting our experience and the inconsistencies with the TV menus, commenting that he didn't have time to watch TV and never would have known. The gesture of comping our meal was very thoughtful. Just wish it would have been for a meal we didn't already have included in the dining package! Hope those 5 soda glasses didn't set you back too far sir! 

If we'd have time to do that differently, I would have much rather been comped a meal at East Meets West so I could try a bunch of different sushi rolls that are extra cost. 

After dinner we caught the end of the Majority Rules game show in Mardi Gras so we could have seats for the Adult Comedy show with Tony Daro.

When we returned to the cabin for the night, we discovered a new delivery of chocolate dipped pineapple slices from Mr. McLurkin and a note asking to speak further about the experience which we'd already done at dinner. Interesting though how it showed up after we left our cabin to go to dinner. The gesture was nice but this tray too was frozen. 

Shortly after we'd returned to the cabin, Spencer stopped by to bring us a tray of chocolate dipped pineapple slices and he seemed harried and out of breath. We confirmed that we had no need for the escorted debarkation in the morning since we booked the tour and he couldn't leave fast enough after we'd handed him an envelope full of his tip. We'd left envelopes with a tip for our steward Boni before leaving the room this morning. I couldn't help noticing how the pineapple tray from Mr. McLurkin had cute decorative flourishes with drizzled chocolate sauce yet Spencer's tray looked like someone threw the pieces straight onto a plate and shoved the plate at him. These slices too were frozen so much so that they could stand upright on their own: