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

[churchlady]

We were cruising with you, too! Thanks for taking us back with you. My kids have all our pictures on their memory cards and I haven't even seen them all yet!!

Love your report so far!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We were cruising with you, too! Thanks for taking us back with you. My kids have all our pictures on their memory cards and I haven't even seen them all yet!!

Love your report so far!!

Hi there! Nice to "meet" you. You should tell your kids to hurry up and put those pictures on the computer so you can see them!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We woke up bright and early on our first sea day. We had not set the alarm, we just seemed to wake up naturally around 7am. This is very unusual for me as usually I sleep in until 10am if nothing wakes me up. We went out onto the verandah and the sky was looking kind of overcast but it wasn't raining so I put my swimsuit on under my clothes and then headed on up to Topsiders for breakfast.

My plate - French Toast, chocolate croissant, bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, cream of wheat and a banana.



Mom's plate



She also got one of the made to order omelets


I enjoyed my breakfast, it was really good aside from the eggs and the cream of wheat, both were really runny.

Mom finished eating before me and so she left to go get dressed for the pool and said that she would meet me up at the adult pool once I was done.

As I finished off my meal this young boy, looked about 7 or 8, sat at the table next to me and started talking out loud to nobody in particular. We was remarking on how there were no Mickey waffles and he hoped that there were some tomorrow. Nobody else ever came to join him for breakfast, I have never been on a cruise before so maybe that is not unusual, I don't know, just found it kind of odd that this young boy was wandering around and eating by himself.

I wandered a bit after breakfast, I was feeling really full! I don't think I was ever hungry that week.



I got to the pool and Mom had just gotten settled when it started to rain! Our rain curse continues! We took cover over at the chairs next to the Cove Cafe waiting to see if it would pass.


The rain however did not let up so we went back down to our room to check the navigator to see what sort of activities were going on that morning since clearly we were not going to be hanging out poolside. We watched a bit of the Jungle Book on tv as we heard the thunder storm going strong outside.

It cleared after a little bit so we went back up to the pool where I hung out in the hot tub for a while. It felt wonderful on my poor aching feet. There were some older men in there with me and we talked reality tv. The rain started up again so back down to the room we went to get changed.

We saw that there was an animation class in Animator's Palate that morning and I really wanted to do that as I had so much fun doing the animation class while at Hollywood Studios.

The class wasn't going to start for over an hour so we decided to wander around and explore a bit.




We were feeling pretty cold and of course we had not packed any warm clothes so we made our way to the shops to see if we could find anything warm to wear.


Mom and I both got a sweatshirt. Her's was on sale for $25 mine unfortunately was not. Mom also bought a second lanyard so that we could each have one to carry our cards around in. She gave me her old one and she got one that zipped up. I also got a sparkly Minnie Mouse pin for my lanyard and we got a rolling duffle bag as we knew we would need it to bring all our souvenirs home.

We dropped our purchases off in our room and all comfy cozy in our new sweaters we continued walking around.

We walked outside and it looked like the skies were clearing up ahead. Hurray!





It was almost time for the animation class so we went back inside to Animator's Palate.




Given the bad weather I was surprised that there were not more people at the class, perhaps people were sleeping in.

Oscar taught us how to draw Mickey that day, mine turned out pretty badly, I did a much better job drawing him at Hollywood Studios. Oh well, I never claimed to have any artistic talent.



Mom's was much better

 

[Tink rules]

MY Mickey came out ok... Mom swears her's looks like a dog...

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

MY Mickey came out ok... Mom swears her's looks like a dog...

When we drew Mickey at Hollywood Studios mine came out really good, I thought Mom's was okay too but she hated it so much that she threw it away almost as soon as we walked out of the class. Good thing I took a picture of it before she did that!

 

[JOANNEL]

You are doing a great job, we had our bed split so mom & sis didin't have to share and I got the couch.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

You are doing a great job, we had our bed split so mom & sis didin't have to share and I got the couch.

Thank You! You know we never even saw our room steward until the third day into the trip. We were always missing him. He even said that he had been trying to meet us but could never find us.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

After animation class we stopped by Shutters to look at our pictures. We had no intention of paying those astronomical prices but we wanted to look anyways. I really wish they wouldn't waste all that paper and ink printing out all those pictures, especially when most of them probably do not get purchased. I did like that they have started linking them to your room card so you can view them at a computer terminal. I think that is a much better idea and more eco-friendly than printing them all out.

While in Shutters Goofy came walking through so I tried to grab a quick picture, it turned out blurry though.


We went back up to the pool at this point, it was still overcast but it wasn't raining. I decided to grab some pizza from Pinocchio's.






Now I don't know what everybody on the boards is talking about, I thought that the pizza was rather tasty. I was almost afraid to try it after reading so many people slam it here on the boards. So I am here telling you don't always believe what you read and make sure to try it for yourself!

We hung out for a little while, there was an origami class that I wanted to go to so I was keeping my eye on the time.




It was time for the class so I went down to the room to get changed, Mom went down too, she just hung out napping in the room while I went down to the origami class.

Oscar was teaching this class too!


We were learning how to make origami flowers, mine turned out awful as I mistakenly glued my flower onto its stem upside down. I threw it away as there was no point in keeping it. That class was more involved than I thought! Definitely not what I thought we would be doing. I used to be a pro at making origami cranes and penguins and frogs. None of those involved glue though....

I went back to the room and we decided to order room service! I got a pepperoni pizza and Mom got the quaesidilla salad. We also each ordered a Mickey bar!



We ate our lunch while relaxing out on our verandah looking out at the open seas! Ahhh this is the life!



After lunch we went back up to the pool. The sun was fully out now! We grabbed loungers up on deck 10 as all the chairs next to the pool on deck 9 were taken.

There was a dj at the pool playing the appropriate tropical vacation music, set just the right mood. I went down to hang out in the hot tub for a while. Chatted with a grandma who was taking a break from the kids who were over at the Goofy pool with their parents.

Started to get overheated so I went and floated around in the pool. I think it was at 2pm, David, part of the cruise staff came out and announced it was time for Adult Pool Games!

It was the men vs the women, two teams of three. There were three games that they had to compete in. The first was the dolphin race where they had to swim across the pool and back pushing a ball with their nose. He gave the men a golf ball sized ball and the woman one that was slightly larger. The men cheated though and swam with the ball in their mouth.

The second competition was a wet t-shirt race. Each team was given a shirt that they had to wear in the pool. The person had to swim across the pool and back in the shirt, they then had to get out and take it off and put it on the next swimmer in their team who had to repeat the process.

The third game was a scavenger hunt. David threw a bunch of gold coins into the pool and they had a set amount of time to dive down and collect as many as possible.

Sadly the men's team won the competition. All the participants were treated to a free drink from the bar.

It was hilarious to watch, glad I didn't have to compete though, too much pressure!

Having enough of the pool I rejoined Mom up on deck 10 and laid out to read while drying off. It was so relaxing lying out under the warm Caribbean sun with the music playing in the background. Only interrupted by the servers who came up every 15 minutes it seemed to ask if we wanted a drink.



I also wandered around and took some pictures




This is the crew's pool, I never saw anybody in it.




The water in the Mickey pool was looking pretty disgusting. Somebody said it was the sunscreen washing off the kids that made it look that colour. It looks like something else to me.....



We had brought our refillable mugs from WDW with us so I went down to the drink station a couple times to fill those up. That is probably when I took all these pictures. We used our mugs as the cups provided are so teeny-tiny, they can barely hold anything.

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

After sunning ourselves for several hours we decided that we would head back down to the room. We made a stop at the drink station to fill our mugs, checked out the outdoor seating at Topsiders and then headed on inside.


The hallways are very narrow and when the room stewards are out cleaning the rooms it can be a tight fit.


We relaxed in the room, watched some of the American Girl Movie (Chrissa) it was all about mean girls bullying. Some kids are just horrible!

Tonight was Formal Night so we got all dressed up. Now the difficult part about this night was my feet. They were still really swollen and in pain from our waterlogged week at WDW. Despite the hot tub and the foot massages I had been giving myself they were still in a lot of pain. My formal shoes were heeled and strappy. It was quite a job getting them on that night and the straps really dug into me. Owww! Beauty is pain as they say.

All dressed for dinner we went on up to the theatre. Tonight was the Golden Mickeys! I was so looking forward to this show.


Minnie was out in her finery for pictures but there was no way I was standing in that line when my feet were in so much pain.


They had "Rona Rivers" outside the theatre interviewing guests (all children) as they arrived for the awards ceremony. It was very cute.


I took a bazillion pictures during this show, it was hard to pick just a few from each act to post.






I thought this was cute, they had chosen several children to dress up as dwarves.




Tarzan, I think everybody was impressed by his "performance", especially Mom.








The show was amazing! I love, love, LOVED IT!

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[Georgia Jamie]

My DH and I along with our two DDs will be on the July 18th cruise to Tortola - - our fourth cruise and 1st time to Tortola.

Reading your great trip report and looking at your terrific pictures brings back some wonderful memories from our previous cruises and makes us REALLY, REALLY, REALLY look forward to July!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your adventures with us all. Can't wait for your next installment!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

My DH and I along with our two DDs will be on the July 18th cruise to Tortola - - our fourth cruise and 1st time to Tortola.

Reading your great trip report and looking at your terrific pictures brings back some wonderful memories from our previous cruises and makes us REALLY, REALLY, REALLY look forward to July!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your adventures with us all. Can't wait for your next installment!

I'm so glad that you are enjoying my report and that it is helping to make you even more excited about your upcoming cruise!

 

[mickeyluv]

I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying your TR! I love all of the pictures and the detail. You are really making this enjoyable for lots of us awaiting our time to cruise! I can't wait to read more!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying your TR! I love all of the pictures and the detail. You are really making this enjoyable for lots of us awaiting our time to cruise! I can't wait to read more!!

Thank You! I love reading and writing WDW TR's, they are definitely done in a different style than what I found down here on the cruise boards though. I really wanted to write a TR with lots of picture and detail like on the WDW TR boards as I know that was what I was looking for when I was planning my cruise. I really wanted to see everything and know how everything went and I figured there are probably others out there who are looking for that in a TR too.

 

[bourgie]

Yuck the kids pool looks gross!!!! Food on the other hand looks fantastic!!!!!!!!!

 

[DMMarla07860]

I love trip reports with lots of pictures so your trip report is great so far

 

[anetnmike]

I am really enjoying your report! LOVE all of those pictures!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Yuck the kids pool looks gross!!!! Food on the other hand looks fantastic!!!!!!!!!

Tell me about it! I would never put my kid in that!

I love trip reports with lots of pictures so your trip report is great so far

Thanks!

I am really enjoying your report! LOVE all of those pictures!!

Thanks, it is so great to know that people are enjoying the report.

 

[SteamboatWillie1021]

More, more....I am checking back every hour to see if you have updated...our day is coming soon and I am loving reading about your fun....sorry it was so rainy for you. I live here in Orlando so I know exactly when you were talking about...it was pretty much nonstop raid for nearly a week and a half here!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

More, more....I am checking back every hour to see if you have updated...our day is coming soon and I am loving reading about your fun....sorry it was so rainy for you. I live here in Orlando so I know exactly when you were talking about...it was pretty much nonstop raid for nearly a week and a half here!

Yeah, the rain was really horrible that week we were in WDW and then it followed us on the cruise! Mom and I think we are cursed as last year when we went to WDW Fay struck and it rained the whole time we were there. Then back in 97, our first trip to WDW we went for Christmas and.... it rained the whole time! The July 07 trip was fairly dry aside from the afternoon showers and the one day at AK it rained all day.

So basically people here on the dis pray that we are not vacationing when they are as we seem to bring the rain.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

After the Golden Mickeys we headed down to Rockin Bar D to see Heath Hyche. He was hilarious the night before at the All Aboard show so we had to catch his act again.



The show was funny, though not as funny as the night before.

After the show we made our way to Lumiere's for dinner. I was so happy that we had Lumiere's on Formal Night!

Anyways as we were walking through the lobby we heard a shattering and a yell. Somebody up on deck 4 or 5 had dropped something made of glass over the railing and it had landed on some ladies arm. It didn't look like she was too badly hurt, but still! The cruise staff were all over it within seconds.

Nothing on the menu really appealed to me that night, as I said before I am a very picky eater.

The honeymooners told us all about how they had participated in the Match Your Mate show the night before. Now I wish I had gone to see if instead of going to bed early.

My appetizer - Cheese souffle

I did not care for this myself but several other people at our table ordered it and really liked it.

I can't find the Golden Mickey's menu online and I didn't take a picture so here are the pictures without description.


Mom's fish entree



I ordered the chicken from the Lighter Fare menu. It was very tasty once I removed the skin.




Dessert this night was AMAZING! I ordered the Golden Chocolate Chocolate Award. So good!!!!!!


Mom said she didn't want anything.....



The servers also brought three creme brulee to the table for everybody to share.


They also brought these giant pieces of cake to the table for the honeymooners and for the other couple at the table who were celebrating their honeymoon "several years late".



Once again Mom and I were boring and headed up to our room for the night after dinner. Maybe we would have done things differently if we had the early seating for dinner. We were just always so tired and full after dinner that we never wanted to do anything.

We got back to the room and found another fun towel animal waiting for us!


Almost as soon as we entered the room I was easing my shoes off. You should have seen the red marks on my feet from where my straps had been digging in! My poor swollen feet! Usually those shoes fit perfectly, not that night.

Mom turned on the news. her nightly ritual, while I rubbed my feet.

After she went to sleep I wrote up my trip notes for the day, read a few chapters of my book and then went to sleep for the night.

Tomorrow was another day at sea and we had our Palo brunch! Lets hope that the weather was a little better!

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