She said it wouldn't be boring!-WONDER WB Caribbean cruise - Bonus Posts Wrap up

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Have fun on Cayman Islands! Vista Spa sounds lovely looking forward to next update! So pleased Fran is having a good year. I was telling Jo and she said I hope they are making the most of it and vacationing to the max. You have to make use of those good times!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like both you and Fran are having a great time. Good for you!

 

[jedijill]

So glad Fran is feeling better this trip! Have a great time in Cayman and go to Hell!

Jill in CO

 

[eandesmom]

I realize this is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black but oh I am exhausted reading the day before your trip!

So glad you were finally able to get some sleep, that is the worst when you aren't in your own bed and cannnot sleep. Sounds like it has been relaxing now that you are on the cruise and I am glad to hear that. We buy the premade cuervo margarita's sometimes and they aren't half bad!

 

[Pinkocto]

Wonderful that Fran is feeling good!!! Sounds like a fabulous time so far!

 

[bangzoom6877]

Sounds like good times!! Way to go taking advantage of carrying on as much as possible in the scooter! I can't wait to read more about that.

 

[franandaj]

I am glad that you are having a wonderful time. I am even more glad that you did not have any issues bringing Fran's clarinet on board.

I have to check out the margarita situation when we get to the USA. I may have to send Graham to the grocery store while I enjoy myself in the parks.

I hope you have a great time in Grand Cayman today.

Corinna

I won't say that the premixed Margaritas are great, but they aren't bad in a pinch like hotels and parties where you have a lot of folks.

Thanks. Grand Cayman was....Interesting.

Hmm, I had no idea, how interesting!

Our FB group was talking about organizing a room crawl to sample the various drinks everyone was brining on!

Have fun on Cayman Islands! Vista Spa sounds lovely looking forward to next update! So pleased Fran is having a good year. I was telling Jo and she said I hope they are making the most of it and vacationing to the max. You have to make use of those good times!

As I said, Grand Cayman was....interesting. You will have a lot to relate to in the next update, and I'm sure it will give you chuckle.

Sounds like both you and Fran are having a great time. Good for you!

We are having fun. So much so that she is starting to slow down and need more naps.

So glad Fran is feeling better this trip! Have a great time in Cayman and go to Hell!

Jill in CO

Hell was short lived.

I realize this is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black but oh I am exhausted reading the day before your trip!

So glad you were finally able to get some sleep, that is the worst when you aren't in your own bed and cannnot sleep. Sounds like it has been relaxing now that you are on the cruise and I am glad to hear that. We buy the premade cuervo margarita's sometimes and they aren't half bad!

Someday Fran will figure out we really need to get packing sooner, especially if she doesn't want me to forget stuff that she hands me at the last minute when I'm a zombie from lack of sleep.

Wonderful that Fran is feeling good!!! Sounds like a fabulous time so far!

So far all we've done is ate and slept! The best is yet to come!

Sounds like good times!! Way to go taking advantage of carrying on as much as possible in the scooter! I can't wait to read more about that.

The picture will have to wait for two updates, but the next update does have a funny anecdote.

 

[franandaj]

I left off with Thursday evening October 30. I had laid down for a nap, and went right out. I slept for over an hour and was pretty groggy when I got up, but did feel a bit better. I had found a text from the guy who was picking up my instrument and our extra suitcase, saying that he was about 20-30 minutes out.

The meeting went smoothly and then we were free to get dinner. After the nap I was too tired to walk all the way down to Kelly’s Landing so instead we went to the Carraba’s right next door to the hotel. Normally I like to avoid chain restaurants, but when tired and hungry my resolve is usually much lower.

We started off with a couple appetizers, the Arancini. These are little morsels of sausage and cheese, covered in risotto, then breaded and deep fried. This is a treat that you don’t find too many places, so I get them any time that I find them.



Fran wanted the Fried Zucchini.



We split the Caesar Salad



That came with our entrée that we also split, Lobster Ravioli.



We headed back to the room, too tired to worry about packing, but since we hadn’t really exploded into the room, there were only a few things that could be easily packed up the following morning.

I was unable to contain my excitement for cruise day and was easily awake by 6AM. I started off playing around on the DIS before hopping into the shower. I woke up Fran and for breakfast we had the leftover Mac and Cheese



Our shuttle was scheduled to arrive at 9:45AM and we were ready to go in the lobby by 20 til 10. I was getting ancy, and just as I asked “when I should start getting worried?” There was a phone call to the front desk. It turns out there was a boat show happening in the port of Ft. Lauderdale and traffic was heavily impacted. The taxis were running late too, as several other people waiting were getting worried as well.

Our driver arrived shortly after 10AM. It was only a 35 minute drive to the port and I had told them that we had an 11:00AM arrival even though, officially our Port Arrival Time was 11:30AM. Here is my first glimpse of the Wonder.





This may not be Disney’s main port, but they have done their best to make it Disnified.





So we had a little mishap while trying to board. Now you’ll see in a later picture that we like to make Fran into a “Pack mule” and load her up with as much carry on luggage as possible. There is a process to loading her up, and it is a very delicate process to unload. We reached the security checkpoint, and here’s where the first thing did not go as expected. We thought that Fran could pull up to the security belt, I could unload her scooter and then she would go through security as normal.

But no, this older gentleman security guard wants her to park about 10 feet away from the security belt and for me to carry all of the carry ons that we have loaded her down with over to the belt. She had my red carry on, her back pack carry on, the bag that we use on the back of her scooter, her clarinet, my purse and three bags with water, adult beverages, and Mountain Dew. One of the things that we do is hang these bags with the beverages over her tiller bars. While I’m trying to take all the bags off the back of her scooter, this “helpful older gentleman” starts to remove the bags from her tiller bar.

The next thing I know is Fran is hurtling forward on her scooter, starting to mow down the poor little old man who is trying to remove the bags from the tiller. Evidently one of the handles of the bags nudged the tiller and next thing you know the front wheel of her scooter is on top of his foot. I had tried to tell him from the beginning that I would take care of moving all the bags from the scooter to the conveyor belt, but he insisted on knowing better and being helpful. Look where it got him! I have no pictures of this incident, but we were surrounded by security the moment the commotion began. I suppose that they wanted to hurry us out of there as quickly as possible, not only were we causing a scene, but we were backing up and monopolizing one of the two scanning machines. This could have been why they didn’t catch Fran’s clarinet on the scan.

Then we headed to here:



When we got to the counter it was before 11:30AM, but they didn’t seem to care. In fact no one actually checked our Port Arrival Time. I think they just give it to you so that everyone doesn’t arrive at once. But we want to board the ship as soon as possible, so I aimed to arrive at 11AM.

Check in was a breeze, and soon we had our Keys to the World, lanyards and Daily Navigator. We found some seats and asked the security folks nearby where we would be boarding. They showed us the elevator only a few feet away, asked our boarding group (which was #4), and told us just to have a seat. Here are the folks lining up for boarding. Most everyone else went up the escalator.



Once they called #2, we started to gather our things, put away our books and phones. The security guy came over to us and led us to the elevator and we were on our way. I guess it wasn’t too premature because they were calling boarding #4 as we were walking across the boarding area to the photo opportunity.

Our Destination:



Looking back at Miami



And one more view of the Wonder before boarding.



I’m going to leave off here until we get back to shore (about two days), as we’re going to need a few changes here, and a couple of other tweaks to the report. See you in a few!

 

[jedijill]

Your dinner looks yummy!

OMG, what a incident getting through Security! I'm glad no one was seriously hurt.

Yay for getting onboard!

Jill in CO

 

[scottny]

I am here.

That is a busy day you had before leaving.

Looked nice and relaxing at the lounge.

That Lobster Roll looked so good.

Is it wrong I find it funny that she ran his foot over. Okay maybe it is.

Glad you are on the ship. Have fun on the remaining time you have.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Dinner looked delicious. It was so nice to see the Wonder again. Yes, I can definitely understand how the clarinet got through. Silly man.

Corinna

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love the dinner! I think I would have been happy with the Lobster Rav.

Speaking of Rav....rev! rev! I'm LOL here picturing the scooter running over the guy who knows better. I'm glad that no one got hurt; but really! What a fuss over nothing. He should have just let you go through as normal.

Good thing you had the taxi booked for earlier in the day.

 

[bangzoom6877]

I am also picturing the guy that knows better being run over by the wheel of a scooter. It truly sounds like a comedy of errors.

So you love arancini, huh? Here in NY we just call them rice balls and they're available at every single local pizzeria in Brooklyn! They have a choice of either regular rice ball (mixed up with lots of cheese!) or filled with meat and also mixed up with lots of cheese. Then there is the rice ball special...which is a nice big rice ball sliced in half, and then topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella and baked. My cousin in Canada gets as many rice balls as she can every time she visits us! My son recently got into them and they're fantastic!

 

[jetskigrl]

Ohhhhh, there is my ship

So sorry about all the trouble at security...ugh.

I can't wait to hear more about the trip

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

What an interesting and unusual appetizer! Never seen/heard of that before. The rest looks yummy too

Good idea to have to left overs for brekkie!

Oh my re security incident. I can just picture that. How stressful. Fancy asking you to carry all that through! But you were soon on board that lovely Wonder. Looking forward to more

 

[Pinkocto]

All the pictures from the port and the ship are taking me right back to my March trip

LOVE those fried zucchini at Carrabas!!!

That 'helpful' old man did NOT know what he was doing...

I'm very curious what was 'interesting' about Grand Cayman. Hopefully you had a good day.

 

[afwdwfan]

Ooops... Looks like I'm a little bit late. I hope you're having a great time on your cruise!

 

[skier_pete]

Ah, this all looks familiar to me. We were on the wonder for a 5-day cruise back in February (it feels so long ago). Curious to see if we see any familiar faces in your pictures...

 

[dgbg100106]

Our FB group was talking about organizing a room crawl to sample the various drinks everyone was brining on!

well that would be fun! Did you guys get around to doing that?

 

[dgbg100106]

David loves the lobster rav also.

It looks like dinner was good and you guys got some good sleep before the cruise.

Sorry about the security incident, but glad you go on the boat without much trouble.