Mother/Daughter Cruise to Tortola, May 23rd, Lots of pics! COMPLETE 7/14

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Since it was once again raining Mom and I went down to the room. We turned on the tv and watched the last bit of Lilo and Stitch and then turned on Cinderella. We also took this time to finish up our packing. There wasn't much left to pack as we had done most of it the day before. All we had left to do with the bags was make sure that they made it out into the hallway on time.

All dressed for dinner we made our way down to the theatre for the last show of the trip, Remember the Magic.










After the show we went down to the atrium so we could squeeze in those last few character pictures. I really wanted to get a picture with Mickey and Minnie in their sailing outfits.


Mom just loved the detailed bows on Minnie's shoes




Our last dinner was in Parrot Cay, it was the Til We Meet Again Menu

I had the Romaine Salad with Artichoke Chips - served with a Roasted Bacon-wrapped Date and Caesar dessing.



I did not eat the bacon-wrapped date, Tom, one of our tablemates was intrigued by it so he snatched it from my plate and dissected it. Glad to know his medical/surgical training could be of use on vacation!

Artichoke, Spinach and Jalapeno Cheese Dip



Seafood Linguini Pasta



I had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin, it was delicious!



Dessert Time!





Our service this last night was really slow. We were just getting our entrees as the other tables around us were getting their desserts. They never offered an explanation for the delay. Overall though our serving team was excellent throughout the trip with the exception of the character breakfast and then this last night.

We asked them to pose for a picture for us


We also exchanged e-mails with our tablemates so that we could e-mail pictures and such.

All finished with our meal it was time to tip our serving team and say our farewells to the group as we would not be joining them for breakfast in the morning. Our head server was nowhere to be seen so we all entrusted his tips with the assistant server.

Overall our dining experience on the Magic was positive. Our serving team was friendly and efficient and our tablemates were friendly and we got along well with them.

However I am not a fancy eater and much of what was on the menus did not really appeal to me. I would have been just as happy eating chicken fingers up on deck 9. I also was rather antsy, I hated that it tool nearly 2 hours to eat dinner. I would have rather been doing something else with all that time.

When we cruise again I think that I will perhaps split my time in the dining room in half, eat there half the nights and then eat up on deck 9 or get room service the other nights.

Mom really seemed to enjoy the dining room dinners though, she is much more a social creature than I am though and she is also a more adventurous eater so the menus were not a hardship for her.

Click here to continue

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Well you can nt me in for the Park art for sure !! Will the Bros be joining you and Lessa ????

Yes they will be coming. This is the trip where I plan on staying AKL concierge, remember?

 

[emmaca]

Well you can nt me in for the Park art for sure !! Will the Bros be joining you and Lessa ????

Good morning Rosie. the plan for now is, that the whole family will be coming and we will be doing Disney and Universal, not sure in what order though.I can't celebrate my 50th without the most important people in my life, my children. Have a good day!

 

[jfis1020]

\

When we cruise again I think that I will perhaps split my time in the dining room in half, eat there half the nights and then eat up on deck 9 or get room service the other nights.

Mom really seemed to enjoy the dining room dinners though, she is much more a social creature than I am though and she is also a more adventurous eater so the menus were not a hardship for her.

My friend had a great suggestion a few weeks ago when we were all talking about who would eat at Palo and when. We all have the late seating. She suggested that we get our ressies at 6 p.m. then join everyone in the restaurant during dinner just to have that time together still. You could eat your chicken fingers before dinner and still partake of the fabulous desserts with everyone else in the dining room at dinner!

 

[englishrose47]

Yes they will be coming. This is the trip where I plan on staying AKL concierge, remember?

Lessa !Remember I will be celebrating 65!! DEMENTIA!!!

Good morning Rosie. the plan for now is, that the whole family will be coming and we will be doing Disney and Universal, not sure in what order though.I can't celebrate my 50th without the most important people in my life, my children. Have a good day!

I am looking forward to meeting the Bros !!!Will AKL be albe to handle them!!!!

 

[emmaca]

Lessa !Remember I will be celebrating 65!! DEMENTIA!!!



I am looking forward to meeting the Bros !!!Will AKL be albe to handle them!!!!

I don't know, if not we can always throw them out with the wild animals in the savannah's They will be grown men when 2012 rolls around 26 yr old and 23 yr old. I can't believe that my babies will be that old and Lessa will be ** can you believe it Time flies when you are having fun. I am so blessed

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

My friend had a great suggestion a few weeks ago when we were all talking about who would eat at Palo and when. We all have the late seating. She suggested that we get our ressies at 6 p.m. then join everyone in the restaurant during dinner just to have that time together still. You could eat your chicken fingers before dinner and still partake of the fabulous desserts with everyone else in the dining room at dinner!

That's a good idea, thanks!

 

[Jennifer48]

Hi Lessa! I found your report and enjoyed reading it! I'm going on the eastern in September with a stop in Tortola too. Our Day at the Baths excursion was canceled which is a bummer but I booked the Tour of Virgin Gorda which stops at the Baths.

I'll tell you tho, thanks to your TR, I have now booked the Trunk Bay snorkel excursion! I debated doing it and now I just have to so thank you for that!

I'm sorry about the rain during your trip.

 

[englishrose47]

I don't know, if not we can always throw them out with the wild animals in the savannah's They will be grown men when 2012 rolls around 26 yr old and 23 yr old. I can't believe that my babies will be that old and Lessa will be ** can you believe it Time flies when you are having fun. I am so blessed

Will the animals be safe ???? But yes you are blessed to have 3 wonderful children who obvisiously adore you!!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hi Lessa! I found your report and enjoyed reading it! I'm going on the eastern in September with a stop in Tortola too. Our Day at the Baths excursion was canceled which is a bummer but I booked the Tour of Virgin Gorda which stops at the Baths.

I'll tell you tho, thanks to your TR, I have now booked the Trunk Bay snorkel excursion! I debated doing it and now I just have to so thank you for that!

I'm sorry about the rain during your trip.

Your excursion to The Baths will be exactly the same as ours minus the lunch.

I am so glad that you are going to Trunk Bay, it is so beautiful there! I can't wait to visit again someday.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Well this is it, the last update for my cruise report!

After dinner Mom went back up to the room to put the suitcases out into the hallway for collection and I went over to the atrium for the Til We Meet Again Character Gathering. I wish I had gotten a better spot (ideally the elevator overlook on deck 5). Unfortunately that was already jampacked so I went on up to the overlook on deck 6.

Til We Meet Again is sort of a last chance informal character gathering. The characters are introduced and then go and mingle out among the crowd for about 15 minutes or so. Then they all line up on the staircases for a neat photo op before waving goodbye. Unfortunately my position did not allow me to get a picture of everybody all lined up on the stairs.



Chip and Dale were really cute, they kept hiding behind the curtains and peeking out.

My attempt at some artsy shots of the chandelier



After the characters said goodbye I went up to the room and found that our bags had already been collected, they sure work fast!


I wasn't ready to sleep yet so I decided to go down to the shops and see if there were any last minute purchases I wanted to make. I did end up buying myself a Plush Minnie Mouse in her cute sailing outfit and I also bought myself a Nurse Minnie pin since I will be studying to become a nurse. I figure I can pin it on my backpack and bring a little bit of Disney to school with me each day.

When I went to pay for the purchases the CM asked me if the plush was for me. Is it so odd that a 25 year old girl would want a stuffed animal for herself? I told him she would sit on my couch in my study to serve as a daily reminder to save my money so I can go on another cruise.

After my shopping I went up onto deck 10 to take some night shots of the ship.



I then returned to my room saddened that our cruise was over. I read in bed for while before going to sleep on the Magic for the last time. My throat was really starting to bother me and my voice was starting to sound rather raspy.

For some reason I woke up around 5:30 that morning. Mom was already awake and informed me that we were back in Port Canaveral and sailing up to the terminal. It was way too early to be awake so I went back to sleep.

I was woken up a little while later by the ship banging into the dock. It felt like it hit it pretty hard and made a nice loud noise and the ship shook. I hope that there was no damage done to the ship, somebody was obviously not paying close attention while pulling the ship in.

I was up for good now so I went out onto the verandah and watched the sunrise. When I woke up I found that my voice was pretty much gone. I could barely talk and when I did it was just a whisper. I prayed that nobody at the airport or at the border would need to talk to me directly as they would not be able to understand me. At least this cold did not hit me hard until departure day.




Mom joined me outside and we just soaked in those last few moments before it was time to leave the ship. We spotted dolphins swimming around the ship. I tried to get a picture, this is the best I could get. There were several of

A little bit after 7am we decided to head down to the atrium and wait for them to let us off the ship. We wanted to get off as early as possible as we had a 12:30 flight and needed to pick up our rental car. Mom and I like to have lots of time, we are definitely not risk takers.

It was crowded down there!

I think it was right around 7:30 that they let us off the ship.


Debarkation was really easy. The day before we had been given luggage tags, ours were grey Daisy Duck. When you get off the ship all the luggage is sorted by these coloured tags and they try and put them in room order as well. I waded through all the bags and grabbed ours. Took two minutes tops.

Next we had to clear through immigration. We were wondering which line to get in since Mom is an American but lives in Canada. They say that your party has to be all together. Well Mom just decided to go into the international line with me which was not a problem. The only question they asked was when I would be traveling back to Canada.

I think the total time from when we got off the ship to when we were exiting the terminal bags in hand was at the most 10 minutes.

We then headed over to the shuttle pick-up area to find a Budget shuttle ready and waiting for us. We shared the shuttle with one other family.

The rental car pick-up went smoothly as well and soon we were on the road, it was right around 8am.

We were at the airport in about an hour, dropped the car off and went on in to check-in for our flights. JetBlue has instituted a new policy at MCO. You now HAVE to check-in at a self-serve kiosk and then get in a line to have your checked bags tagged and then you drop them off with TSA.

That all handled we had several hours until our flight. We stopped in the Disney Store and grabbed some food in the food court and then went over to our gate to wait for our flight.

The flight was uneventful aside from a lady who was almost refused boarding with her dog. She had him in an approved carrying case and had gone through all the proper channels when checking in but for some reason the JetBlue employees at the gate were giving her a hard time saying that the carrying case was too big. They did let her on though, with a warning.

The flight was uneventful, I watched Panic Room on my little tv.

We made our traditional stop in Watertown to stock up on the American groceries we can't get in Canada.

There was no line-up at the border so we were through quickly and then we were almost home!

It's not the Caribbean but it is not too shabby.



It was great to be home, I missed my cats desperately. I was also majorly sick so it was wonderful getting a good nights sleep in my own bed. I did not recover from my cold until we had been back for over a week. Everybody was laughing at me and my old lady voice.

Overall we had a fantastic vacation minus a few hiccups, but we did not let those keep us from having fun.

 

[jlawall]

#1 best trip report ever!!

 

[Eeyore18]

Thanks Lessa- we leave in 3 days! Your report made the waiting much easier!
Can't believe we're almost there! Your report was awesome!

 

[emmaca]

Will the animals be safe ???? But yes you are blessed to have 3 wonderful children who obvisiously adore you!!!

Will the animals be safe, which ones I love you Rosie

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

#1 best trip report ever!!

Well I don't know about that but thank you for the compliments. I am glad that you enjoyed sharing in my trip with me.

Thanks Lessa- we leave in 3 days! Your report made the waiting much easier!
Can't believe we're almost there! Your report was awesome!

Have a fantastic time on your trip and you are guaranteed nice weather since my family will be nowhere near the cruise ship!

 

[princess22]

Oh no, I'm sad your TR was over. I feel like I just started it! Loved every minute of it though. Sorry you had so much rain on your trip. I remember those weeks!! Hopefully next time it will be the complete opposite, not a single drop of rain, just gorgeous sunny skies.

 

[dato63]

Not only was your trip report enjoyable, but it was also very informative. Course, those pictures are going to make it even harder to wait until our cruise. . .sigh.

I was so sorry to read about all the rain at Castaway Cay. I know it is a small conciliation - but the rain did give you some amazing photos.

Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Not only was your trip report enjoyable, but it was also very informative. Course, those pictures are going to make it even harder to wait until our cruise. . .sigh.

I was so sorry to read about all the rain at Castaway Cay. I know it is a small conciliation - but the rain did give you some amazing photos.

Thank you so much for sharing.

I was glad that at least we had a couple of nice hours at Castaway Cay, just wish I hadn't spent so much of that time snorkeling and had done something else with the time instead. Oh well, we will be back!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Oh no, I'm sad your TR was over. I feel like I just started it! Loved every minute of it though. Sorry you had so much rain on your trip. I remember those weeks!! Hopefully next time it will be the complete opposite, not a single drop of rain, just gorgeous sunny skies.

Thanks for reading and responding, I am so glad that you enjoyed it!

Yeah, here's hoping that our next trip will have nice weather. Who knows though, it seems that somebody has placed a rain curse on us. I feel bad for the people who vacation at the same time as us, they don't know what they are in for.

 

[anetnmike]

I read lots of trip reports, Lessa, and yours by far has been one of the best both in information and sheer enjoyment. Thank you so much for ALL of it.
Good luck with nsg school. It is totally worth it.
( I have the Minnie nurse pin on my work lab jacket! you are NEVER too old for Disney - I am 43!)