florida sun
Mrs Christopher Eccleston wannabe!
- Joined
- May 2, 2004
- Messages
- 17,635
Part 4 Day At Sea and Disembarkment Day
Cast Sue (mum42)
DD- Vicki (14)
Day 4 Day At Sea
We decide last evening to have a bit of a lay in bed this morning, so although I was awake at 7.30am I relaxed in bed until about 9.30 when my DD got up. After breakfast at Beach Blanket we made our way to the pools which were starting to fill up very fast. We had a couple of hours splashing about in the water, then decided to go and get changed for lunch at Parrot Cay. Lunch was fine and we were able to have a table for just the 2 of us.
After lunch my DD went to met some of her pals from the teen club and we arranged to meet back up at the room at 1.45pm as we were going to see the Village at the cinema at 2.15pm.
Just as Vicki got back to the room I was telling her that I was sure I could see land not to far off and wondered what Island it was. Then shortly after there was an announcment made that we would be pulling into and stopping at Freeport in 30 minutes time as there was a medical emergency aboard.
We went up to deck 10 just in time to see us pulling into Freeport, we were all reminded once again that no passengers would be allowed to disenbark here, just the person who was sick. We noticed that there was an ambulance waiting and in no time at all the ambulance crew boarded the ship. After about 5 minutes they came off with a passenger on a stretcher and a very distreesed looking companion, who tearfully waved to somebody that they had left onboard.The ambulance then left.
I said to Vicki that my heart went out to whoever they were and I hoped and still do that they made a full and speedy recovery. We never did find out what had happened, but it must have been terrible for them.I also wondered why the Wonder stopped visiting Freeport as it looked very pretty, but after speaking to some of the crew they told us it was because apart from the small array of shops you could see in the port, that there was nothing for quite a few miles and not within walking distance.
We then made our way to the cinema to watch the Village, we had missed about 10 minutes but soon got into it. My DD loves horror movies, I on the other hand spent most of the time peering through my fingers and still did not really understand it, until Vicki explained it to me.
After a quick shower and change we made our way to see Disney Dreams, this was Vicki's favorite show and we both thought it was wonderful. Beth in Treasure Ketch had told us beforehand the girl who played the lead part was also from Wales, so to give her a big welsh cheer.
Evening meal that night was at Tritons for the best of menu. Larry and his son were there and we dicided we would each order a different starter to try a bit of each. I ordered lamb for my main meal and unfortuntaly when it came it was bearly cooked. The meat was totally pink and very very chewy. I was not going to say anything but Larry advised me to send it back and have it cooked through a bit more as he would not have eaten it like that had he ordered it. I felt a bit bad but my server Kamoon was very nice and told me it was no trouble at all.When the meal returned it was wonderful and cooked to perfection.I dont mind steak on the rare side but not lamb.I then finished off with a wonderful white chocolate and strawberry cake and Vicki had (yes you guessed it) a Mickey Ice Cream Bar.
Vicki then went off to the teen club for a couple of hours, but was back about 12 as we had to be up at 5.30 to make the immigration and customs meeting at 6am the following morning. That, I was not looking forward to. Finished off packing and only just remembered to leave clothes out for the morning. Made sure suitcases were outside stateroom before 11pm.
The last Day
Up with an early morning call at 5.30, splashed some water on face,cleaned my teeth and had to drag Vicki from her bed to go to immigration. We had already pulled into Port Canaveral and it was still dark outside. Arrived at Wavebands at 5.45 thinking we would be one of the first there...WrongI think some people had camped overnight to be there bright and early, there must have been about 30 people in front of us.Not to worry, they have it down to a fine art and we were in and out in about half an hour. I thought it would take forever. Went to the drinks station on deck 9 and picked up some coffee and Danish pastries and decided that we would not go for Breakfast, but would have our last hour in the stateroom, where we showered and got ready and had our last bit of time on the varandah eating our danish and drinking our coffee. I was really sad to be going and wished we had just another few days.
Once the ship had been given the all clear, we disenbarked as soon as the doors opened. We located our luggage extremly easily thanks to our Donald Duck tags and made our way through customs. No issues at all. We arrived at the Disney Bus Terminal and told the crew where we were going. As it was fiarly early we were given a choice of riding back in a small white van that was ready to leave immedatly or we could go back by the Disney Bus which we would have to wait to fill up. We decided on the bus as it looked far more inviting than the Van and we were in no rush as we were going back to The All Stars for another 7 days. Good choice, as it only took a few moments before the bus was completely full and we were on our way watching Disney cartoons.We gave one last wave to the ship and knew in our hearts that we would be sailing on her once again in the future.We arrived back at our resort by 9.45am.
A few points to note.
1.No problems at the drinks machine at all, never run out of ice at all.
2.We gave our tips out on the last evening.
3.Fill out the comments cards with the names of the crew members that made a differnce to you on the ship,apparently they are read and the crew named are rewarded in some way.
4.For non-us travellers, the immagration forms are very easy to fill out.
5.Dont forget to take photo ID with you when getting off the ships in port.
6.We bought the photo package which turned out to be good value if you plan on buying lots of photos, however the larger photos are not included in this package and although they say they throw photos away every evening to make room for new ones, all of ours were kept there right until the last morning.
7.If you have booked a varandah dont forget the the ones with the solid white balconys at the aft, you will not be able to see out of unless you stand up.
8.Book any excursions early,we did not receive any excursion itinerarys from Disney 60 days out as I have since learnt that most people did, and when we tried to book a few things on board they were all fully booked.
Finally have a wonderful and relaxing cruise, this was our first experience and we throughly enjoyed it. To all of you lucky people who have cruises booked, have a wonderful time. To all of you on the dis boards I meet such as Pat and Family and those who have helped me out, special mention to Andy Varandah Man and Diane Tartenfan, and to each and evryone of you who answered my questions thank you all very much, without you it would not have been as special as it was. I hope I can be as helpful now to new cruisers. I hope you enjoyed reading our trip report.
Sue and Vicki
xx
Cast Sue (mum42)
DD- Vicki (14)
Day 4 Day At Sea
We decide last evening to have a bit of a lay in bed this morning, so although I was awake at 7.30am I relaxed in bed until about 9.30 when my DD got up. After breakfast at Beach Blanket we made our way to the pools which were starting to fill up very fast. We had a couple of hours splashing about in the water, then decided to go and get changed for lunch at Parrot Cay. Lunch was fine and we were able to have a table for just the 2 of us.
After lunch my DD went to met some of her pals from the teen club and we arranged to meet back up at the room at 1.45pm as we were going to see the Village at the cinema at 2.15pm.
Just as Vicki got back to the room I was telling her that I was sure I could see land not to far off and wondered what Island it was. Then shortly after there was an announcment made that we would be pulling into and stopping at Freeport in 30 minutes time as there was a medical emergency aboard.
We went up to deck 10 just in time to see us pulling into Freeport, we were all reminded once again that no passengers would be allowed to disenbark here, just the person who was sick. We noticed that there was an ambulance waiting and in no time at all the ambulance crew boarded the ship. After about 5 minutes they came off with a passenger on a stretcher and a very distreesed looking companion, who tearfully waved to somebody that they had left onboard.The ambulance then left.
I said to Vicki that my heart went out to whoever they were and I hoped and still do that they made a full and speedy recovery. We never did find out what had happened, but it must have been terrible for them.I also wondered why the Wonder stopped visiting Freeport as it looked very pretty, but after speaking to some of the crew they told us it was because apart from the small array of shops you could see in the port, that there was nothing for quite a few miles and not within walking distance.
We then made our way to the cinema to watch the Village, we had missed about 10 minutes but soon got into it. My DD loves horror movies, I on the other hand spent most of the time peering through my fingers and still did not really understand it, until Vicki explained it to me.
After a quick shower and change we made our way to see Disney Dreams, this was Vicki's favorite show and we both thought it was wonderful. Beth in Treasure Ketch had told us beforehand the girl who played the lead part was also from Wales, so to give her a big welsh cheer.
Evening meal that night was at Tritons for the best of menu. Larry and his son were there and we dicided we would each order a different starter to try a bit of each. I ordered lamb for my main meal and unfortuntaly when it came it was bearly cooked. The meat was totally pink and very very chewy. I was not going to say anything but Larry advised me to send it back and have it cooked through a bit more as he would not have eaten it like that had he ordered it. I felt a bit bad but my server Kamoon was very nice and told me it was no trouble at all.When the meal returned it was wonderful and cooked to perfection.I dont mind steak on the rare side but not lamb.I then finished off with a wonderful white chocolate and strawberry cake and Vicki had (yes you guessed it) a Mickey Ice Cream Bar.
Vicki then went off to the teen club for a couple of hours, but was back about 12 as we had to be up at 5.30 to make the immigration and customs meeting at 6am the following morning. That, I was not looking forward to. Finished off packing and only just remembered to leave clothes out for the morning. Made sure suitcases were outside stateroom before 11pm.
The last Day
Up with an early morning call at 5.30, splashed some water on face,cleaned my teeth and had to drag Vicki from her bed to go to immigration. We had already pulled into Port Canaveral and it was still dark outside. Arrived at Wavebands at 5.45 thinking we would be one of the first there...WrongI think some people had camped overnight to be there bright and early, there must have been about 30 people in front of us.Not to worry, they have it down to a fine art and we were in and out in about half an hour. I thought it would take forever. Went to the drinks station on deck 9 and picked up some coffee and Danish pastries and decided that we would not go for Breakfast, but would have our last hour in the stateroom, where we showered and got ready and had our last bit of time on the varandah eating our danish and drinking our coffee. I was really sad to be going and wished we had just another few days.
Once the ship had been given the all clear, we disenbarked as soon as the doors opened. We located our luggage extremly easily thanks to our Donald Duck tags and made our way through customs. No issues at all. We arrived at the Disney Bus Terminal and told the crew where we were going. As it was fiarly early we were given a choice of riding back in a small white van that was ready to leave immedatly or we could go back by the Disney Bus which we would have to wait to fill up. We decided on the bus as it looked far more inviting than the Van and we were in no rush as we were going back to The All Stars for another 7 days. Good choice, as it only took a few moments before the bus was completely full and we were on our way watching Disney cartoons.We gave one last wave to the ship and knew in our hearts that we would be sailing on her once again in the future.We arrived back at our resort by 9.45am.
A few points to note.
1.No problems at the drinks machine at all, never run out of ice at all.
2.We gave our tips out on the last evening.
3.Fill out the comments cards with the names of the crew members that made a differnce to you on the ship,apparently they are read and the crew named are rewarded in some way.
4.For non-us travellers, the immagration forms are very easy to fill out.
5.Dont forget to take photo ID with you when getting off the ships in port.
6.We bought the photo package which turned out to be good value if you plan on buying lots of photos, however the larger photos are not included in this package and although they say they throw photos away every evening to make room for new ones, all of ours were kept there right until the last morning.
7.If you have booked a varandah dont forget the the ones with the solid white balconys at the aft, you will not be able to see out of unless you stand up.
8.Book any excursions early,we did not receive any excursion itinerarys from Disney 60 days out as I have since learnt that most people did, and when we tried to book a few things on board they were all fully booked.
Finally have a wonderful and relaxing cruise, this was our first experience and we throughly enjoyed it. To all of you lucky people who have cruises booked, have a wonderful time. To all of you on the dis boards I meet such as Pat and Family and those who have helped me out, special mention to Andy Varandah Man and Diane Tartenfan, and to each and evryone of you who answered my questions thank you all very much, without you it would not have been as special as it was. I hope I can be as helpful now to new cruisers. I hope you enjoyed reading our trip report.
Sue and Vicki
xx
Off to see the pictures 
