It was Friday. I was a little sad that the cruise was coming to an end, but we still had Castaway Cay. I had read so much, and saw so many pictures, that I was really looking forward to this. It is a shame that it is the last day, it all seemed a bit rushed....you know, "I have to pack, I need to get my boarding passes....." the list goes on.
We woke up at about 5:30 or so, and Brian (DH) walked a short distance with me, but he felt congested and decided to go up to the fitness room to ride one of the bikes. I was really motivated so I jogged around the rest of the way. I decided (listen to this excuse) that since I will not be able to work out like I did on the ship at home, there was no reason to lift weights on the ship. I decided the logical thing was to go back to the room. I went all the way back to the room, on deck 2, and realized that Brian was the only one with the room key. I knocked and knocked, but no one would answer. I had to go up to deck 10 and the fitness center to get the key. I went back down to the room to get a shower and all for Castaway Cay.
The boat was backed into the dock. This looked like it was a real feat for the captain to do, but he did it. I thought this was a very interesting thing to see. I wonder why they back in there? Do they always back in?
It was raining, so I was really bummed. I really wanted it to be nice for our day there, but it really looked dismal. We ate breakfast, AGAIN, at Topsiders. Someone told us that it was supposed to clear by 10. I was hoping that they were right.
After breakfast we decided to get off the ship. We had seen from our room that Disney was giving everyone rain ponchos. I thought this was so nice. We decided to go ahead and get off the boat.
It was just spritzing when we got off the boat. We got some pictures. Saw the Flying Dutchman, which was very neat. The boys were very fascinated by that. I was just thinking that Johnny Depp may have been within 10 feet of that boat.
Be still my heart.
When we finally got to the family beach, it was raining pretty hard. We found a couple chairs and an umbrella to park our stuff. I kept the poncho on while our youngest (Nate) went to snorkel. He enjoyed this so, so much. He was out there for a long time exploring. I enjoyed watching him. He was amazed by all that he could see. I did not know the half of it until he and his dad were talking about it all. I guess it is pretty impressive out there. I wish I would have went.
We decided to explore a little bit. I wanted to just see the adult beach and take a couple of pictures, so we walked over there. It is quite a walk, but a beautiful one. Our youngest joined us, and was really excited when he saw the runway. There was an old plane there, and he inspected that thoroughly. As we were walking to the adult beach the tram passed and the driver kept telling usthat it was only for 18 year olds. I could not get him to understand that we only wanted to look at it and that our son would not go anywhere near the place. Heaven forbid. It was a really beautiful and serene beach. I would have loved to spend time here, but Nate wanted to hang with us, which was actually nice, since we had not seen all that much of him during the rest of the cruise.
We ate at Cookies. It was okay. The hot dogs were good. They tasted like the good Hebrew National or Nathan's. I was not too keen on the rest of the stuff. It filled me up. Oh, I forgot too, that I had a konk cooler. I thought it was good, although I have heard others say it was not. I liked other drinks better, but this was good also.
We saw sillykidsmom from the Disgroup and moved our stuff to their area of the beach. While DH's were in the water, or snorkeling, or relaxing, we sat and watched the kids, chatted, vented, etc. It was a really nice day. I enjoyed that all so much. I won't say how, but if it were not for sillykidsmom, I would be at my DH feet begging for forgiveness. LOL
That's all I got to say about that.
I did some shopping and Brian went back to the boat. Nate and I walked a bit, and then we took the tram back. I think we were one of the last people getting back. It was a very long line getting back on. I was getting a bit tired of waiting, and dinner was to be in less than an hour. People were painting the side of the boat while we were boarding. I read in a book that Nate got that the black on the boat is only 85% black....the rest is blue. They did not want pure black because it would look too dismal . I thought that was so interesting.
We rushed to get ready for supper. It was Parrot Cay one last time. The dinner was delicious. What did I have? ....hmmm, I cannot remember. Everything was delicious though.
At the end of dinner, they had a wonderful parade. I will not give it away , but be sure to bring your cameras. It was so much fun, and the servers had such a good time. You will want pictures of them as they proudly parade around. We were given the opportunity to thank them all in a special way. I really don't want to give this away, because I was so touched. I want others to be touched just the same.
We gave our tips to the servers. Are we supposed to do it personally? We did, but it seemed odd doing that . Almost like they did not expect that. Oh well, we wanted to thank them personally.
We went back to the room to change, get the rest of the packing done, and then we were off again. Our young teen wanted to be with his new friends, Nate wanted to go to the club, and Brian and I went to see Remember the Magic. Oh my, I cried so much during this one. It was so beautifully done. It really made you see what a magical time you really had on this cruise. After that we walked a bit. My goal was to see POTC II one more time. It came on right before 11. We went to the room and Nate was there. We stayed there for a little bit and then went to the Walt Disney Theater. I made it throught the entire movie, while Brian and Nate headed back to the room about half way through. I had a blanket from the room to curl up in (highly recommended) and I made myself comfortable for the movie.
After the movie, I was surprised to see how many people were out and about. It was pretty busy. I guess everyone was holding on to that last night. I know I was.
I could not sleep a wink that night. OUr room was so noisy; I guess it was because we were going full speed ahead. There was so much shuddering . As much as I tried, I could not sleep. I watched tv and probably got to sleep by 4:30 or so. We woke up pretty early, of course. We could feel the boat coming into P Canaveral. I did not want this day to begin.
Day 8
Wahhhhh! We got up, showered, and left the room with all of our things. We headed to Topsiders to a really scaled down breakfast. No omelettes. It was still delicious, but there sure were a lot of long faces, children, as well as grown ups.
After breakfast we headed down to the main atruim where we were to depart from the ship. I got off the elevator and they were playing music that triggered my tears. I said immediately, "they can't do this to me." We waited for what seemed like forever to get off the boat. After that it was pretty smooth sailing. Aside from a porter ramming the back of my foot with a cart, all went well. Boy did that hurt. I don't believe he even slowed down for me and the saddest part was that he did not even have the cart loaded with suitcases. He should have been able to see me clearly. Oh well, I survived.
Customs was so quick and easy, and we found the bus with no problem. Carrying all the suitcases was a bit of a pain, but that was fine after the wonderful week we had. We got to the airport at about 9:30 or a little after and it was chaos. I used a friends statement and changed it a bit to, " Welcome back to reality, let the stress begin." Our flight was not until 2:30 so we had so much time to kill. For some reason, I was so nervous about this flight. I am always nervous, but I felt terrible this time.
I think the main problem I had was the wait. To top it all off, the flight was delayed. We did not leave until 3 :30. It was a good flight, but a bit of a rough landing. The stangest thing I saw was a bunch of firetrucks with their lights on as we went down the runway. They were all just parked there like you see in the movies. I thought, since it was a rough landing, that something must have been wrong with out plane, but we saw an American Airline ( I believe) plane with people getting off of it , but they were not at the terminal. It must have been for them , although,I never heard anything about it.
We had a wonderful time on the Magic. We were told that once you take a cruise you will not want to do anything else. Well, we were going to go out west next year, but now we are looking into a cruise. It was the most relaxing and enjoyable time we have ever had. No worries at all.
I will add a couple pics of CC in my next post.
We woke up at about 5:30 or so, and Brian (DH) walked a short distance with me, but he felt congested and decided to go up to the fitness room to ride one of the bikes. I was really motivated so I jogged around the rest of the way. I decided (listen to this excuse) that since I will not be able to work out like I did on the ship at home, there was no reason to lift weights on the ship. I decided the logical thing was to go back to the room. I went all the way back to the room, on deck 2, and realized that Brian was the only one with the room key. I knocked and knocked, but no one would answer. I had to go up to deck 10 and the fitness center to get the key. I went back down to the room to get a shower and all for Castaway Cay.
The boat was backed into the dock. This looked like it was a real feat for the captain to do, but he did it. I thought this was a very interesting thing to see. I wonder why they back in there? Do they always back in?
It was raining, so I was really bummed. I really wanted it to be nice for our day there, but it really looked dismal. We ate breakfast, AGAIN, at Topsiders. Someone told us that it was supposed to clear by 10. I was hoping that they were right.
After breakfast we decided to get off the ship. We had seen from our room that Disney was giving everyone rain ponchos. I thought this was so nice. We decided to go ahead and get off the boat.
It was just spritzing when we got off the boat. We got some pictures. Saw the Flying Dutchman, which was very neat. The boys were very fascinated by that. I was just thinking that Johnny Depp may have been within 10 feet of that boat.
Be still my heart. When we finally got to the family beach, it was raining pretty hard. We found a couple chairs and an umbrella to park our stuff. I kept the poncho on while our youngest (Nate) went to snorkel. He enjoyed this so, so much. He was out there for a long time exploring. I enjoyed watching him. He was amazed by all that he could see. I did not know the half of it until he and his dad were talking about it all. I guess it is pretty impressive out there. I wish I would have went.
We decided to explore a little bit. I wanted to just see the adult beach and take a couple of pictures, so we walked over there. It is quite a walk, but a beautiful one. Our youngest joined us, and was really excited when he saw the runway. There was an old plane there, and he inspected that thoroughly. As we were walking to the adult beach the tram passed and the driver kept telling usthat it was only for 18 year olds. I could not get him to understand that we only wanted to look at it and that our son would not go anywhere near the place. Heaven forbid. It was a really beautiful and serene beach. I would have loved to spend time here, but Nate wanted to hang with us, which was actually nice, since we had not seen all that much of him during the rest of the cruise.
We ate at Cookies. It was okay. The hot dogs were good. They tasted like the good Hebrew National or Nathan's. I was not too keen on the rest of the stuff. It filled me up. Oh, I forgot too, that I had a konk cooler. I thought it was good, although I have heard others say it was not. I liked other drinks better, but this was good also.
We saw sillykidsmom from the Disgroup and moved our stuff to their area of the beach. While DH's were in the water, or snorkeling, or relaxing, we sat and watched the kids, chatted, vented, etc. It was a really nice day. I enjoyed that all so much. I won't say how, but if it were not for sillykidsmom, I would be at my DH feet begging for forgiveness. LOL
That's all I got to say about that. I did some shopping and Brian went back to the boat. Nate and I walked a bit, and then we took the tram back. I think we were one of the last people getting back. It was a very long line getting back on. I was getting a bit tired of waiting, and dinner was to be in less than an hour. People were painting the side of the boat while we were boarding. I read in a book that Nate got that the black on the boat is only 85% black....the rest is blue. They did not want pure black because it would look too dismal . I thought that was so interesting.
We rushed to get ready for supper. It was Parrot Cay one last time. The dinner was delicious. What did I have? ....hmmm, I cannot remember. Everything was delicious though.
At the end of dinner, they had a wonderful parade. I will not give it away , but be sure to bring your cameras. It was so much fun, and the servers had such a good time. You will want pictures of them as they proudly parade around. We were given the opportunity to thank them all in a special way. I really don't want to give this away, because I was so touched. I want others to be touched just the same.
We gave our tips to the servers. Are we supposed to do it personally? We did, but it seemed odd doing that . Almost like they did not expect that. Oh well, we wanted to thank them personally.
We went back to the room to change, get the rest of the packing done, and then we were off again. Our young teen wanted to be with his new friends, Nate wanted to go to the club, and Brian and I went to see Remember the Magic. Oh my, I cried so much during this one. It was so beautifully done. It really made you see what a magical time you really had on this cruise. After that we walked a bit. My goal was to see POTC II one more time. It came on right before 11. We went to the room and Nate was there. We stayed there for a little bit and then went to the Walt Disney Theater. I made it throught the entire movie, while Brian and Nate headed back to the room about half way through. I had a blanket from the room to curl up in (highly recommended) and I made myself comfortable for the movie.
After the movie, I was surprised to see how many people were out and about. It was pretty busy. I guess everyone was holding on to that last night. I know I was.
I could not sleep a wink that night. OUr room was so noisy; I guess it was because we were going full speed ahead. There was so much shuddering . As much as I tried, I could not sleep. I watched tv and probably got to sleep by 4:30 or so. We woke up pretty early, of course. We could feel the boat coming into P Canaveral. I did not want this day to begin.
Day 8
Wahhhhh! We got up, showered, and left the room with all of our things. We headed to Topsiders to a really scaled down breakfast. No omelettes. It was still delicious, but there sure were a lot of long faces, children, as well as grown ups.
After breakfast we headed down to the main atruim where we were to depart from the ship. I got off the elevator and they were playing music that triggered my tears. I said immediately, "they can't do this to me." We waited for what seemed like forever to get off the boat. After that it was pretty smooth sailing. Aside from a porter ramming the back of my foot with a cart, all went well. Boy did that hurt. I don't believe he even slowed down for me and the saddest part was that he did not even have the cart loaded with suitcases. He should have been able to see me clearly. Oh well, I survived.
Customs was so quick and easy, and we found the bus with no problem. Carrying all the suitcases was a bit of a pain, but that was fine after the wonderful week we had. We got to the airport at about 9:30 or a little after and it was chaos. I used a friends statement and changed it a bit to, " Welcome back to reality, let the stress begin." Our flight was not until 2:30 so we had so much time to kill. For some reason, I was so nervous about this flight. I am always nervous, but I felt terrible this time.
I think the main problem I had was the wait. To top it all off, the flight was delayed. We did not leave until 3 :30. It was a good flight, but a bit of a rough landing. The stangest thing I saw was a bunch of firetrucks with their lights on as we went down the runway. They were all just parked there like you see in the movies. I thought, since it was a rough landing, that something must have been wrong with out plane, but we saw an American Airline ( I believe) plane with people getting off of it , but they were not at the terminal. It must have been for them , although,I never heard anything about it.
We had a wonderful time on the Magic. We were told that once you take a cruise you will not want to do anything else. Well, we were going to go out west next year, but now we are looking into a cruise. It was the most relaxing and enjoyable time we have ever had. No worries at all.
I will add a couple pics of CC in my next post.
I enjoyed to reading it.
