La Belle et le Bête of Barbary Coast ~ Aug 28 Med Cruise TR ~ Final Photos UPDATE!!

[jitsb]

That's exactly where we are! Well, for another 3 months anyways!

I'm going back through and editing the first few days to include pictures. I'm planning to update all of them, just need the photos edited first!

 

[JOANNEL]

That's exactly where we are! Well, for another 3 months anyways!

I'm going back through and editing the first few days to include pictures. I'm planning to update all of them, just need the photos edited first!

He just got there so he will be there for a while.

 

[jitsb]

Adding photos! This is a very slow process, as I'm editing the pictures into the previous posts. I'm stuck with my horrible internet connection, but I'm plunking away at the 400+ pictures! CanNOT believe that it was one month ago today we left for Barcelona... I so miss my boat!!

At least I get to relive the trip through photos.

 

[akluss]

It was nice to meet you on the Ship. I am enjoying your trip report and re-living the trip through another traveler's experiences. I truly thought this trip was amazing, both in the ports and on the Ship, and I have been so missing it this moth. I have been looking at my pictures every day and also thinking about doing a report of my own to keep it alive for me and maybe help some of the lucky people who are going next year. Looking forward to the rest of your report. Karyn

 

[jitsb]

Hey Karyn!

It was nice to meet you too! DH and I were just talking about all the people we'd met the other day and he was impressed how many I'd "known" on the boards.

I know exactly what you mean about missing the trip!! I can't believe it's been a whole month since we started our cruise! Almost everyday I wake up and wish I was back on my boat! Let me know if you write up a report -- I'd love to read it!

Going back through these photos is hard... it makes me miss it even more and great googily moggily I took too many pictures!!

Cheers!
Sarah

 

[jitsb]

So.... I just realized.... I never added the last two days of the trip report!! Not as much here as on the other days, but still made for a wonderful end to the trip!

Monday September 6th

Villefranche, France
​

I'd like to apologize to anyone reading this with the hope of learning all about exciting Monte Carlo or artsy Cannes... I'm afraid I can't help you! Our last "port day" actually ended up being a "sea day" for me and my family.

Our boys were quite exhausted by this point which may have explained why we all got a chance to sleep in for the first time the whole trip!

Thanks to the position of the boat, the Topsider's deck was in the shade and we got to sit outside in the balmy weather and enjoy our breakfast with an amazing view of the French coast!

Shortly after that, the DSs were jonesing to hit the Lab again and there were piles of laundry calling my name. So... considering I explored the French coast on a HS trip, I wasn't particularly interested in tendering out there to look around. The DH wanted nothing more than to curl up, drink coffee and read for fun!

That pretty much sealed our decision for us. As strange as it may seem, we decided that a decadent, child-free afternoon was exactly what the vacation doctor ordered! After a "grown-up" lunch and some coffee in the Cove Cafe, I dragged the hubby to Could Go Bingo. The jackpot had been building up the whole trip, and here was a chance for it to be won with a blackout bingo reached in a certain number of calls. Surprisingly enough, I got a BINGO in the first round, but had to share the jackpot with some else. We love Natalie, the Bingo Queen!! And wonder of wonders, a guy in the audience won the Jackpot on the last possible number!! We were floored...and totally jealous!

We retrieved the boys early in order to get ready for our last dinner in Animator's Palace. Summer surprised the boys with a new trick -- full-sized paper flowers made out of kids menus! The boys were so impressed, they held onto them even during our trip home. ^_^

We had a fantastic meal ~ Flavors of the Mediterranean, tapas, fish and lamb and upgraded wine to a recommendation of Collin's --Silverado! A new favorite!

Knowing that tomorrow was going to be packed, we let the boys talk us into a little more time at the Club after dinner. We took the opportunity to duck into Sessions... WOW! Why had we never been here before?! This place was so perfect for us! Specialty coffee drinks, cocktails and the piano bar atmosphere was so lovely. This little corner just exemplifies what makes the Magic so special and different from other ships. I think this is our new favorite spot!

Quote of the Day: Summer, while assisting my slather-happy youngest, "Would you like a little bread with your butter?"

 

[jitsb]

Tuesday September 7th

Day at Sea
​

This was the hardest day for me...ever! The last day on our Caribbean cruise was CC, so it was too much fun to be sad, but this day was so bittersweet! *sigh*

The whole family stayed in bed until 8 a.m...and let me tell you, folks, that was a Barnes' family miracle! I do believe such a thing has never before occurred! We decided to make our last morning a brunch since our rotation was at Lumiere's. And while the food was lovely, we honestly missed our servers! Room service works for me!

We were trying to be sure everyone got a chance to do what they wanted on the "last day" and while shuffling schedules, suitcases and souvenirs around, I completely forgot to stop by the Treasure Ketch for the "castaway Club shopping"! I had waited all week to buy a two-fer on the scrapbooking packages. Rats!

A necessary evil, but it's my least favorite part of any vacation -- packing to go home! It invariably leads me to a rant, muttered under my breath, about "what possible reason I brought this along for" and "refuse to buy one more lousy memorabilia" and, in this case, "will not leave behind one single bottle of wine"!! The children didn't want to be present for this part, (heck, neither did I!!) so we let them say a fond farewell to the kids zones.

When we needed a break, we stopped by the final Art of Entertaining and picked up a fabulous recipe for Chocolate Mousse! We checked in with the art gallery and guest services (trouble again with the stupid Disney Visa!!) and had lunch with the kids.

Seeing as we don't have cable in our house in Germany, we decided to le the boys watch the Incredibles in the room to help relax a bit and I debated whether or not to go to the final Bingo session. I actually stopped halfway down the hall and walked back to the room, feeling sort of guilty for leaving. I opened the door and saw all 3 "boys" snuggled up on the couch, staring open mouthed at the screen with identical dopey grins on their faces. Shrugging, I quietly closed the door and decided I should have a glass of wine with my BINGO game!

I met Natalie outside Rockin' Bar D and she said there was still a cash prize and a stateroom credit up for grabs, so I decided to go for broke and buy the biggest electronic package available. No luck the first two rounds, but before the 3rd round, my name popped up on the raffle! Cool! I was now the proud owner of the very last available "Lot-so Huggin" bear onboard the Ship.

After being foolish enough to sit on an aisle sit, I was subjected to lots of teasing by both Joe and Oscar throughout and giggled happily at the "tweens" who jumped up and joined in the "B-11" Bingo bance. Yet, the best part came in round 4, when I was the first person to be one away from a Bingo and got to do the "stander" dance with Oscar. It was agonizing... I just needed an I 30 to win, and she called every letter except that!! There were suddenly lots more standers in the room and as I glanced down, I noticed there were now TWO cards only one away... the other number was a B...getting ready to call the number...it won't be mine... "B 13"!!! WWWOOOOOOO!!! Lucky for some!! I heard Joe behind me say "No...way" and I yelled BINGO!!!! It may not have been "the jackpot", but I was still thrilled to go back to the room and hand my DH a receipt for a $500 on board credit and $870 cash!!

Needless to say, we were on quite the wave of giddiness when we entered Parrot Cay for our final dinner. Collin recommended the BEST bottle of Banfi wine and we all had such a lovely evening, smiling and laughing with the servers and our kids. The boys were very excited and made sure we cheered the loudest for our serving team during the "international show" after dinner.

We were still taken completely by surprise when Fitz, Collin and Summer suddenly showed up at our table with a whole team of servers, bringing us a large layer cake singing Happy Anniversary!! They said they missed us on our special day but hadn't forgotten, so they gave us buttons and everyone around us cheered... it was so embarrassing, I felt like Yzma in the Emperor's New Groove.

Later that nigh, after our closets and drawers were sadly empty and our suitcases were forlornly set outside the door, we tucked the kids into bed and resigned ourselves to the fact that our vacation was coming to a close. Curled up in our bed, we were just drifting off to sleep when something incredibly eerie happened... the ship listed so sharply to the port, the curtains billowed out towards the bed!

After a matching set of "WHOA"s, DH and I quietly made our way to the verandah door, peeked out the curtains and saw a massive storm! Directly off our starboard balcony, the wind howled, the waves splashed and huge bolts of lightening streaked from the dark wall of clouds to the sea, illuminating the black curtain of rain. It was awe-inspiring and, though the Captain did a great job of skirting around it, the scenario still required more than a little trust.

My morbid sense of curiosity got the best of me so I cracked open the sliding door and the gust of wind that squeezed through almost blew me over! I hurriedly shut it and smothered a hysterical giggle as the thought popped into my mind of how awful it must have been to come across something like that in the sailing days of old...

Quote of the Day: Marilu, our stateroom hostess, when we mentioned how we didn't want to get off the boat, "I have room in my locker for you to hide!"

 

[tigger2on]

Wonderful report!
Thanks for sharing!
Safe journeys back to the US in December!

 

[jitsb]

Thank you! I'm having a hard time getting my head around our move. I told the DH yesterday, "my brain is firmly entrenched it the past (i.e. the cruise!) and I do not want to think about the future!"

Well, I guess it's time to officially close this baby out. As for our final day, Wednesday September 8th, I think the following picture sums it up nicely:

Neither of my kids has fallen asleep in the car for more than two years! We were so exhausted after a horrible day of traveling and having been on our MAGICal ship for almost two weeks, being plunked down in the middle of cloudy, rainy weather with a bunch of grumpy people was quite a shock!

Fortunately, we booked another cruise while on board and we are already talking about what we're going to do then!! Guess the future's pretty bright after all!

Thanks for reading and I hope to get to know many more of you over the next year!

Cheers,
Sarah

 

[akluss]

WOW!! Congrats on your bingo win! I've never played bingo on any cruise, maybe I should try it next time. Your report was great, I really enjoyed reliving our wonderful cruise. I almost forgot about that storm on the last night, it was spectacular. All the best to you and your family, Karyn

 

[gatzsd]

Thank you for a great report! We were on the Sept 8 Cruise right after you. I so wish we had the extra sea day like you- if I had to do it over again, I would have done your sailing instead. We also had a storm on the last night too that was quite spectacular - does Disney order those ? At least you have another one to look forward to!

 

[jitsb]

Hi gatzsd! I was wondering how that last Med cruise went! Seemed like a lot of port days to have in a row. You had a storm, too? Amazing! I just kept telling myself, if we'd been in the Caribbean, it would have been a hurricane! I hope you get to do another Disney cruise again soon!

Karyn, I highly recommend BINGO with Natalie! Hopefully she'll be there for awhile, as she and I had a conversation at one of the session, about how much we both liked the ship. Seems she has no intention of leaving for the Dream, so we gave each other a HIGH-FIVE for the Magic!

She and her team do a fantastic job with audience participation at the Bingo sessions, trying to keep it interesting, and there are lots of laughs, especially if alcohol is involved!

Let me know if you post a TR; I'd love to read your thoughts and experiences.
Cheers,
Sarah

 

[jitsb]

Please excuse this bump -- I'm attempting to move my thread to the top of the boards so I can print off my report (as soon as the printer gets fixed ) in preparation for the *big* scrapbooking weekend!

I'm really looking forward to "re-living" my experiences through pictures and the TR... what a great idea I had to write this!!

 

[jitsb]

Posting here so this gets bumped to the top of the Trip Report board. Anyone looking for a perspective on a long Med cruise with two little kids, just let me know! I just finished my scrapbook from last year's cruise and have it all fresh in my mind, lol!