Hiddenhearth
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 16, 2001
- Messages
- 41
In docking ships, it is so very easy to have a ship moving too fast when approaching a berth. Walking pace can be too fast. Docking with a current behind you - a fair current, as we say - a current pushing you along, can make the job especially difficult. A layman watching a pilot at work with such conditions might believe that a ship approaching its berth has a comfortable distance to go before stopping, whereas a pilot would know that he has some difficult ship-handling to do, to get the ship slowed down and stopped before arriving at the berth, especially, as I say, with a fair current. Sometimes we go a little past the berth...
To feel the inertia of such a massive weight, just drifting in the water - to understand this in your mind, by experience - is truly impressive.
And it can be so odd to feel the dread of something up ahead - seemingly far up ahead - arriving much faster than it should. And what an awful realization it is to know you can't slow its approach.
That is the way I felt, along about Thursday morning, that Thursday on the Magic, about the oncoming 0900 debarkation on Saturday. Saturday morning was just ahead and it was coming too fast. I wanted to slow this thing down and could not. The good times I was having was like a fair current behind me, pushing me along, running me headlong much too fast into Saturday morning.
It was almost like being in a panic.
We only had that one day left. Well of course there was Friday to come, but Friday would be on Castaway Cay, and that wasn't on the ship and that day would certainly rush by. Friday evening would be to pack - Oh My God! - and then bam Saturday morning the week was over.
Much much too fast.
All the things I wanted to do on the ship would have to be packed into Thursday.
I had that free pass for the Rain Forest which surely I was going to use but did I? No. Didn't even think about it. Our party perused the Personal Navigator like we hadn't before (I suspect everyone was feeling the panic of the end's fast approach), trying to choose which events were a must. We all went separate ways.
I brought my 11 y/o DS to Family Animation, where we learned to draw Mickey's face. My son is quite an artist and I went to RISD for 2 yrs - but silly as it sounds, we both got a kick out of creating our own Mickey face.
Then he went one way and I stopped in on The Art of Making Disney Books, at the movie theatre, which I hadn't seen yet, which I thought was the most lovely movie theatre I'd ever seen. The discussion was interesting but I was much too impatient and thus moved on. Saturday morning was breathing down my neck.
By mid-day I couldn't help but know what the final jackpot at Bingo would be, for the final drawing that afternoon. Jim, the Cruise Director, made sure to that. And despite never having played Bingo before, the sound of that jackpot ($5000+) convinced me that that day was a good one to try it. So I bought a handful of tickets in the lobby.
Some of our party haphazardly rendezvoused for lunch, where I showed the others my handful of tickets and invited them to help me punch holes at 1600.
Besides wanting to do - on that Thursday - all the things I hadn't done yet on the cruise, I wanted to do more of the things I'd enjoyed so much. More ping pong, for instance. More diversions into the pool (yes I even joined the other bobbing heads in the family pool), and even the hot tub. Another stop at Scoops. Shuffleboard.
One thing I particularly enjoyed were the chess games with DF and DS's. DS #2 brought along his chess board, which we frequently set up where DF and DM liked to station themselves, at different times of the day, up forward in the adult area, at one of the tables by the window. This naturally became our meeting spot. How peaceful it was there to get into a serious game. So, yes, even with the anxiety of Saturday's arrival looming ahead, I had to have another game with my father and with my son. I thought this might even slow the end's approach - like going astern with the ship's propeller - but, like being in a fair current, getting pushed along, time was not being fair. The dread grew ever faster, ever stronger. Would that this week never end. Fat chance.
Fat chance, too, at bingo. Everyone but MIL joined me at 1600, some of us still in bathing suits. We divided up the tickets and got caught up in the anticipation of thousands of dollars. I would have accepted the free cruise, for sure. Surprisingly, though, all my tickets wound up in the receptacles at the ends of the aisles.
Oh time was going much too fast.
Next was dress for dinner. Then, of course as always, the Family Cabaret at 7:45. Then dinner - we get to see Eddie and Zaldy! Did they miss us last night?!
Then tonight was the night for Disney Dreams!
The last night for a show, oh no!, for tomorrow night for packing!
Back it down!, back it down! - this was going all too fast! the dread turning to pain...
Steve.
To feel the inertia of such a massive weight, just drifting in the water - to understand this in your mind, by experience - is truly impressive.
And it can be so odd to feel the dread of something up ahead - seemingly far up ahead - arriving much faster than it should. And what an awful realization it is to know you can't slow its approach.
That is the way I felt, along about Thursday morning, that Thursday on the Magic, about the oncoming 0900 debarkation on Saturday. Saturday morning was just ahead and it was coming too fast. I wanted to slow this thing down and could not. The good times I was having was like a fair current behind me, pushing me along, running me headlong much too fast into Saturday morning.
It was almost like being in a panic.
We only had that one day left. Well of course there was Friday to come, but Friday would be on Castaway Cay, and that wasn't on the ship and that day would certainly rush by. Friday evening would be to pack - Oh My God! - and then bam Saturday morning the week was over.
Much much too fast.
All the things I wanted to do on the ship would have to be packed into Thursday.
I had that free pass for the Rain Forest which surely I was going to use but did I? No. Didn't even think about it. Our party perused the Personal Navigator like we hadn't before (I suspect everyone was feeling the panic of the end's fast approach), trying to choose which events were a must. We all went separate ways.
I brought my 11 y/o DS to Family Animation, where we learned to draw Mickey's face. My son is quite an artist and I went to RISD for 2 yrs - but silly as it sounds, we both got a kick out of creating our own Mickey face.
Then he went one way and I stopped in on The Art of Making Disney Books, at the movie theatre, which I hadn't seen yet, which I thought was the most lovely movie theatre I'd ever seen. The discussion was interesting but I was much too impatient and thus moved on. Saturday morning was breathing down my neck.
By mid-day I couldn't help but know what the final jackpot at Bingo would be, for the final drawing that afternoon. Jim, the Cruise Director, made sure to that. And despite never having played Bingo before, the sound of that jackpot ($5000+) convinced me that that day was a good one to try it. So I bought a handful of tickets in the lobby.
Some of our party haphazardly rendezvoused for lunch, where I showed the others my handful of tickets and invited them to help me punch holes at 1600.
Besides wanting to do - on that Thursday - all the things I hadn't done yet on the cruise, I wanted to do more of the things I'd enjoyed so much. More ping pong, for instance. More diversions into the pool (yes I even joined the other bobbing heads in the family pool), and even the hot tub. Another stop at Scoops. Shuffleboard.
One thing I particularly enjoyed were the chess games with DF and DS's. DS #2 brought along his chess board, which we frequently set up where DF and DM liked to station themselves, at different times of the day, up forward in the adult area, at one of the tables by the window. This naturally became our meeting spot. How peaceful it was there to get into a serious game. So, yes, even with the anxiety of Saturday's arrival looming ahead, I had to have another game with my father and with my son. I thought this might even slow the end's approach - like going astern with the ship's propeller - but, like being in a fair current, getting pushed along, time was not being fair. The dread grew ever faster, ever stronger. Would that this week never end. Fat chance.
Fat chance, too, at bingo. Everyone but MIL joined me at 1600, some of us still in bathing suits. We divided up the tickets and got caught up in the anticipation of thousands of dollars. I would have accepted the free cruise, for sure. Surprisingly, though, all my tickets wound up in the receptacles at the ends of the aisles.
Oh time was going much too fast.
Next was dress for dinner. Then, of course as always, the Family Cabaret at 7:45. Then dinner - we get to see Eddie and Zaldy! Did they miss us last night?!
Then tonight was the night for Disney Dreams!
The last night for a show, oh no!, for tomorrow night for packing!
Back it down!, back it down! - this was going all too fast! the dread turning to pain...
Steve.
Steve, you HAVE to make your ending very LOOOONG for us, ok?
I have only been to Disneyworld, never having experienced a cruise before, but I completely understand your despair knowing the week is ending, the dreaded Friday packing. Its funny, for years my dream was to make it to DW, now it is to make it on the Magic with my husband and three boys. I don't know though....10 grand for one week for all of us, but boy does it sound magical. Someday...
