Our Magical Westbound Transatlantic Voyage Sept 2010 DAY 15 & 16 ADDED PG 12 5/29/11

[KristiMc]

Great report. We were on the Magic last month and we are missing it so. Loved your picture of Nur. He was one of our favorite crew members.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Great report. We were on the Magic last month and we are missing it so. Loved your picture of Nur. He was one of our favorite crew members.

Thank you

 

[Julie2009]

A fantastic day Sarah, you did so much in Tortola

You both look great in your Palo gear

 

[dvc4life]

Just getting caught up on your report Sarah and am truly enthralled with it. Your sea days look absolutely heavenly and I loved those photos you took with the rain clouds. Beautiful.

And then your photos of St. Maarten and Tortola are so colorful and warm looking.

We would love to try and do that mixology thing. It looked like it would be lots of fun.

You are doing a great job and I am hating the fact that you are coming to the last few days of your trip.

Keep up the great job.

 

[gismo1554]

I could have sworn I had a photo of you and Dan sitting at the bar in the Pussers Outpost ........

Nearly finished .... just 3 more days to go really. Hope to finish it before next trip in July.

I thought you did too! Weird!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

A fantastic day Sarah, you did so much in Tortola

You both look great in your Palo gear

Thank you ... I might bring that dress along again this year.

Just getting caught up on your report Sarah and am truly enthralled with it. Your sea days look absolutely heavenly and I loved those photos you took with the rain clouds. Beautiful.

And then your photos of St. Maarten and Tortola are so colorful and warm looking.

We would love to try and do that mixology thing. It looked like it would be lots of fun.

You are doing a great job and I am hating the fact that you are coming to the last few days of your trip.

Keep up the great job.

Thank you. It was a truly wonderful trip. I love the clours of the Caribbean islands and they are so photogenic.

I thought you did too! Weird!

I know ..... I will have to see if I can find my original memory card and see if there are photos I forgot to upload to computer.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Day 15 – Day at Sea

This was to be our last day at sea on our wonderful transatlantic voyage …. the second week in particular had simply flown by, and it was so sad that the cruise was coming to an end. This morning it had been raining, so everywhere around the ship was a little bit damp. We popped up to Topsiders for breakfast, and then we decided to kidnap Kimberly's friend Ivanna Cruz and see what she could get up to around the ship ( sorry, but this will only have meaning to the WBTA cruisers themselves .. so I will post Ivanna's adventures on our cruise meet thread )

I don't seem to have taken many photos during the day as basically we just chilled and relaxed for most of it. I met up with Corinna during the morning to collect in the entries for the scavenger hunt we had arranged, and we sat in Promenade Lounge while we marked the entries.

At lunch time we met up with our cruise group in Parrot Cay where we hsad arranged a farewell lunch. It was lovely to see everyone again before we went our separate ways. We also announced the winners of the various competitions we had organised, and the Secret Mickey participants revealed themselves to each other.

During the afternoon we just relaxed up on deck and then headed to the cabin to get ready for the show … Disney Dreams, which was just outstanding ( more than I can say for this photo .. very blurry but the only one I got ... sorry )

After a walk around the deck we headed for dinner.

Tonight was semi-formal dinner in Parrot Cay

our neighbours ...

Tablemates ...Lynne and Len :

Michael and Michele:

Gus and Morag:

Neighbours Michael and Marc looked amazing in their white tuxedos

and their very shiny shoes ..

and time for one of my favourite desserts on board …. chocolate lava cake.

We had a photo taken with our servers … Leslie and Raphael who were truly amazing:

In the atrium the photographers were in action and Len and Terry were larking about .. resulting in some very funny photos:

After dinner we went along to see John Charles in the Walt Disney Theatre …. this was quite entertaining but very much geared to the US audience … who seemed to absolutely love John's performance. He did seem a really nice chap though.

After the show we went for our habitual walk on deck. At this point we were hearing rumours that the Wonder had been unable to dock in Castaway cay that day due to rough seas, and it was predicted the same for tomorrow, so we went to bed with everything crossed, hoping that we would make it to our tropical paradise island the following day …...

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Day 16 – Castaway Cay

We woke early and Tony headed off to the gym, while I grabbed a coffee and wandered around the deck to see if I could spot any sightings of Castaway Cay.

Before long Tony joined me and we sat and chilled for a while before heading for breakfast at Topsiders.

At this point we still didn't know if we were going to be docking at Castaway Cay, but the sea seemed fairly calm, and no announcements had been made to the contrary, so we remained hopeful. We ate our breakfast as we approaced the island,

and then we watched the officers negotiate going alongside from the bridge wing.

They did an admirable job and we were thrilled to be docked at Castaway Cay. We weren't the only ones to be thrilled … these guys looked pretty pleased about it too ….

I then took lots of photos of Castaway Cay from every imaginable position:

and they must have been giving one of the palm trees an extra bucket of fertilizer as it had certainly had a growth spurt:

 

[TotallyAngelic]

We headed back to the cabin to change into running gear as we were participating in the Castaway Cay 5 K run ( or in my case - fast walk ). This was an idea which had developed on our meet thread, and although there wasn't an official DCL 5K, our organiser Lynne managed to obtain a copy of the route and so we were just going to do our own thing and use that. During the previous few months Tony and I had decided to get sponsored by friends and family to do the run / walk in aid of a charity in the UK called Dial-A-Dream, which basically arranges treats, days out and holidays to terminally ill children. So I was determined to do it for that reason if nothing else, and had I not been sponsored I may well have chosen the beach and bar option that morning, rather than huffing and puffing in 90 degree heat for 5 kilometres, looking far from glamorous.

Anyway, it ended up with just 4 of us meeting off the ship to commence the run / walk, and off we went. It was not easy, the sun was beating down and not much of the route was under shade, but we managed to complete the route and it was such a relief when it was over. Here we are back at the ship after the event:

The bar was calling my name, so we rushed back on board for a quick shower and then headed back down towards the family beach, stopping en route for a very welcome and hard earned Konk Cooler for me

and Budweiser for Tony ( in a very cool bottle ).

In the end I found the Konk Kooler a wee bit strong so Tony had to finish that too. All that exercise had gone to my head !!

Not a bad view from where I was sitting:

We bumped into Michael and Michele so we took some photos of each other at the various viewpoints:

We headed over to the Pelican Plunge area, and Tony, Michael and Michele decided to be very brave and had a go on the Pelican Plunge, which was not really my cup of tea ( wimp ). After that adventure we decided to go to Cookies BBQ for lunch, which was as delicious as ever, and the servers were coming around with Mickey Bars so of course it was rude to refuse. The Mickey Bars had not been available on the crossing so this was our first time to get one on the cruise, so you can imagine the excitement. Although in my excitement I clearly forgot to photograph this momentous event.

After lunch we headed back to the family beach and comandeered some longers near the ocean, where we stayed for the rest of the afternoon, until we were reluctantly ushered back to the ship.

On the way back we stopped off to take lots of photos,

As Castaway Cay is clearly one of the most photogenic locations in the world ... I will have to continue in the next post:

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Sorry … lots more photos … just couldn't help myself …...

Bottle mail ......

including these of the now lost and lamented Flying Dutchman.

We remembered to wash the sand off our feet before going on board:

 

[TotallyAngelic]

All too soon we were back on board and we grabbed a cocktail for sailaway, before getting ready for the performance of Remember the Magic …. a very sad show indeed, which always makes me cry, as it is this moment when it hits home that our cruise is really coming to an end, and I can't stay on this beautiful ship forever, and that I have to go and pack my bags ready for bag pick up at 11pm. In between the show and dinner I rushed back to the cabin and rather haphazardly packed the bags. We found our stateroom host Loyd and gave him his tip envelope and a gift for all his wonderful service.

Random photo of our door before I took down all the magnets.

We then went to dinner for the last time with our wonderful tablemates, and our DIS neighbours. There were lots of hugs, tears and photos being taken all around.

We gave out our tip envelopes and gifts for our servers and thanked them for all their amazing service during the 2 weeks. It was very sad.. After dinner we went to watch the end of John Charles performance, just so we could see the fabulous cruise staff doing their “If I were not upon the sea” routine in the Walt Disney Theatre. There was a bit of an unexpected addition to the act in the shape of two ballerinas !! Unfortunately I was too far away from the stage for any decent photographs.


After this performance we headed up on deck with a bottle of champagne and had a last drink with Michael and Michele. All too soon it was time for our last night sleeping on the Disney Magic.

 

[gismo1554]

Ah! Can't believe it was our last night!

 

[Con5421]

Great report Sarah.

Connie

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Ah! Can't believe it was our last night!

I know ..... I got depressed just writing about it

Great report Sarah.

Connie

Thanks

 

[LindaBabe]

Lovely! Sad to see it end, but soon, you'll be doing it all over again!

 

[Rikersmom]

Sarah,

I have so enjoyed reading your trip report. Are you a journalist? Your writing and photos are great.

I feel like I know you after reading of your adventures. I can't wait to experience this cruise myself! I hope that this year's will be awesome.

Hopefully we can meet when you come to visit Taryn in July.

Karen

 

[ziggybaby]

Sarah

Great report and photo's ,

We've just booked our trans-atlantic cruise today (our first cruise ever) , this will be our first holiday with our new born son, he will be 8 months at the time of departure, after weeks of pondering are we doing to much with a infant we thought " why not"

Hopefully catch you onboard​

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Sarah

Great report and photo's ,

We've just booked our trans-atlantic cruise today (our first cruise ever) , this will be our first holiday with our new born son, he will be 8 months at the time of departure, after weeks of pondering are we doing to much with a infant we thought " why not"

Hopefully catch you onboard​

HI and thank you and welcome to the WBTA 2011. Come along and join our cruise meet thread

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2724264

and our facebook group

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_152365544827288&notif_t=group_r2j

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Sarah,

I have so enjoyed reading your trip report. Are you a journalist? Your writing and photos are great.

I feel like I know you after reading of your adventures. I can't wait to experience this cruise myself! I hope that this year's will be awesome.

Hopefully we can meet when you come to visit Taryn in July.

Karen

Not a journalist but thank you for the compliment ... you are very kind. We will defiinitely try and meet up in July

Lovely! Sad to see it end, but soon, you'll be doing it all over again!

I know ..... wonderful isn't it

 

[Aurore]

Hello Sarah !!

I've just spend 2 hours reading your trip report, and I really want to thank you!

I had a wonderfull time....

and now I just want to get onboard !!!