Dinner, interrupted

With Benjamin thinking he might need to, um, be sick, he knows to head to the nearest restroom. Unfortunately, there are none right within view in the restaurants on board. We point him out the exit and down the hallway with the word that there are restrooms right by the stairwells, and we send Brandon with him to help guide him there.

Within a couple of minutes a bowl of delicious Cream of Sweet Onion soup is placed in front of me, but we haven’t heard back from either son, so I get up to go check on them. The soup will have to wait – though it would be easier to leave it I hadn’t been able to smell it first.

I walk out of the restaurant and down the short hall to the closest elevator/stair landing and step into the snug men’s room there. One stall is in use. “Benjamin? Brandon?” I call out. “No,” says an unfamiliar voice. Hmm.

If they are not in the closest bathroom, where are they?

As I step back out in the hallway and turn towards the Promenade Lounge, I see Brandon coming towards me. He reports that Benjamin got sick on the carpet a little further along. In the stress of the moment, they missed the closest set of bathrooms and kept going. Lovely.

Brandon says that Benjamin is not alone – he’s being tended to by a crew member in the Lounge. I thank Brandon and send him back to supper, and then start down the hallway to the other end of the Lounge. Except I find the walkway blocked from each direction by a row of chairs. Oh. That must be… the place. Wow, these Disney crew members are efficient.

I step into the Lounge and spot Benjamin in a chair at the far end. A female crew member is wiping his face with a washcloth, and he himself is sipping ginger ale from a can with a straw in it. He looks a little pale, but otherwise all right.

I introduce myself to the crew member and apologize for the inconvenience, but she is very gracious and tells us both not to worry about it at all – it happens. She’s very good at putting us both at ease. She recommends getting Benjamin a little fresh air up on Deck 4.

Benjamin confirms he’s good to move, so I thank the cast member and we step out of the Promenade Lounge and head upstairs to Deck 4, using the large staircase near Shutters. We go to the nearest doorway to the outside deck and find it blocked off for some reason. I turn to lead Benjamin to the next closest door, but he says he just wants to sit for a few minutes. That’s fine. There are a couple of chairs nearby, so we sit.

He sips his ginger ale reports that he feels a lot better – which is often the case after an upset stomach. We just rest there for 5 or 10 minutes, and then Benjamin says he’s ready to go back to the restaurant. Funny, but his main concern, now that he feels better, is that he’ll have to give back the Sprite he ordered at Parrot Cay because he now has a ginger ale! I assure him that no one will mind if he keeps both drinks.

We go through Shutters to the aft stairs, to avoid walking past the Promenade Lounge, and then drop down to Deck 3 and return our table in Parrot Cay. Benjamin really does look much better, but we still admonish him to take it easy, and especially go slow on eating much. He doesn’t seem to need us to tell him that, though.

My soup’s still here, and tastes wonderful.