Are You Ever Coming Home?...No! I am playing with Wizards,Farkles & Sparkling Friends

cast89by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast90by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast91by Jenseib, on Flickr

We typically walk out to the beach in the morning verses the tram. We love to take in all the beauty along the way.

cast92by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast93by Jenseib, on Flickr

We found Fred and claimed our chairs for the day.

cast94by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast95by Jenseib, on Flickr

We saw some parasailers going up and wondered if Patty and Caleb were among them.

cast9by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast10by Jenseib, on Flickr

I have never snorkeled at Castaway Cay, so I brought my snorkeling stuff off the ship today so we could remedy that. Our spot was right by the snorkel lane.

cast14by Jenseib, on Flickr

They do provide vests, and I have one, but we needed one for Claire.

As we got into the water, I noticed Brook’s family joined our seats too. She was taking random pictures and I don’t think she saw me, but I waved to her anyways and she caught this.

cast79by Jenseib, on Flickr

I hadn’t realized the snorkeling lane was so long and you have to swim quite a ways before you see anything good. The ground was also full of sea grass.

cast15by Jenseib, on Flickr

I did see some sand dollars down there.

cast11by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast12by Jenseib, on Flickr

And a few big fish.

cast13by Jenseib, on Flickr

And what looked like ant hills. LOL.

cast16by Jenseib, on Flickr

Claire was having issues and at one point we had to go back to shallower water so we could trade vests and play with her snorkel. Hers had lost the little clamp to hold it toher mask. She was holding it up but she complained a lot about it.

cast17by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast18by Jenseib, on Flickr

We did not bring our flippers off with us and I think we probably should have.

cast19by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast20by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast21by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast22by Jenseib, on Flickr

At one point the teen club arrived and totally over took us as they went by…but we spotted Zach and some of this friends.

cast23by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast24by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast26by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast27by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast28by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast29by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast30by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast32by Jenseib, on Flickr

As we got further out, we saw where they have tried to make man made reefs.

cast33by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast34by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast35by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast36by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast37by Jenseib, on Flickr

This was a little better now than what we had seen on our way out, but we really had to come quite far to find this.

cast38by Jenseib, on Flickr

We found a sunken boat and went over by that.

cast39by Jenseib, on Flickr

My pictures all turned out pretty bad though.

cast40by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast41by Jenseib, on Flickr

Claire was still struggling and just having problems today, so it was hard to explore and enjoy.

cast42by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast43by Jenseib, on Flickr

I saw a stingray go by and I tried for a picture….and got part of his tail. LOL.

cast44by Jenseib, on Flickr

I would have loved to have gone further out where all the red buoys were. Those marked areas of interest, but Claire was just struggling too much and complaining even more. We just gave up and started to swim back to shore. Sadly we didn’t make it out to much today.

cast45by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast47by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast48by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast49by Jenseib, on Flickr

Hopefully next time we visit Castaway we can go further out and see some more sights. Fred had been out too and he said he did see some good stuff.

We headed off to the bathroom and ran into this guy.

cast97by Jenseib, on Flickr

Olaf! You are going to melt out here!

cast98by Jenseib, on Flickr

We then headed back in the water with Patty, Fred, and Caleb , and Brook, Joe and Henry.

cast50by Jenseib, on Flickr

Patty had gotten a bunch of floats for the day, so she gave us one to use.

cast51by Jenseib, on Flickr

I was trying to capture birds in flight in this picture…they basically look like specks. Hahaha

cast52by Jenseib, on Flickr

We had a lot of fun just floating in the water and talking. Brook and family headed to lunch after a bit.

Jeanne messaged me they were going for lunch so we headed up to meet her. She said her kids were going on a bicycle ride after and Claire could join them. Claire said it was way too hot to be riding bikes.

We had a nice lunch and Caleb decided to go ride bikes with the kids, but Claire stayed with me. She totally lost out as after their ride, they smuggled Caleb back to the Cabana they were at. I knew it was killing Claire that they were all having fun and she was stuck with me.LOL. I told her she should have went on the bike ride.

After a bit Claire needed something to drink, so we got her a virgin drink.

cast53by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast54by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast55by Jenseib, on Flickr

We relaxed a bit then went for a walk.

cast56by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast57by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast58by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast59by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast60by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast61by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast62by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast63by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast64by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast65by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast81by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast82by Jenseib, on Flickr

We then got back in the water with the floats for a while and just chilled. Patty went to take a nap on a hammock, so Claire and I stayed in the water with Fred and we all just chatted. I know it sounds boring, but we really had a great time. Fred is really easy to talk to and at this point it felt like we had known him forever.

Patty woke from her nap and joined us for a bit and then we decided to get out as we heard they were selling 2 for one drinks. Patty and Fred ordered one, but they charged them for both drinks because one was a virgin. They had been told at ordering they would be included in the special and they had to go back and forth to get it taken off their account.

We went to see if the smoothie place was offering the special, but they were closing up. It had gotten windy and a little grey and rain looked to be in the forecast. We all decided to pack up and start towards the ship, with a little shopping along the way.

I bought my granddaughter a shirt and I think we got a magnet as well. I also got myself a shirt. Patty bought a shirt that I had gotten a couple years ago and is one of my favorites. Patty wasn’t sure if Caleb was coming back with Jeanne’s family or not, so I messaged Jeanne to get Caleb back on the ship and literally 2 seconds later Caleb found us.

We ended up losing Patty and Fred at some point and we headed for the tram to get back to the ship. We could tell rain was in the near future.

cast99by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast100by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast101by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast102by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast103by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast104by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast105by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast106by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast107by Jenseib, on Flickr

As we approached the ship we could feel a few random raindrops, so we knew it was coming.

cast108by Jenseib, on Flickr

We headed to the far ramp, which had a little line.

cast109by Jenseib, on Flickr

Literally, just as we stepped inside the rain came…and hard. The people behind us were getting wet.....that’s how close we were to getting poured on.

We headed back to the room and Claire went to get showered. Jeanne messaged me that she was stuck out in the rain and waiting on a tram. I later saw them all coming down the hall totally drenched…..at least they had swimsuits on.

I headed up top as we were close to sail away time. I saw a bunch of people getting pictures and it took me a while to figure it out….Beautiful rainbow!!!!!

cast110by Jenseib, on Flickr

This was our view as we left Castaway Cay. Just perfect!

cast111by Jenseib, on Flickr

One of my friends got a perfect picture with the island in the background too. At some point I went back to the room to get cleaned up, but took pictures from the window.

cast112by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast113by Jenseib, on Flickr

Good Bye slice of Heaven!

cast114by Jenseib, on Flickr

I set to the task of packing. I hate packing, and after 10 days, it was even worse than normal. I set out the clothes and things we would need for tomorrow and then gathered Claire’s fish extender gifts. I had been trying to keep them condensed and in a suitcase for most of the cruise, but I had to reorganize now.

I will take a minute and just say what wonderful friends we have. The gifts we got were phenomenal. Claire was truly spoiled. We got candy from around the world. Claire gota brand of lipsticks she loves…and not just one tube, but a whole set of different ones. She got make up stuff, manicure stuff, cute little gifts from peoples home state/country…etc. I was amazed at the generosity of our friends.

Also on that note, my friends have amazing kids. Jeanne’s daughters were so nice and fun and treated me just like one of the family. Nick warmed up to me after a few days and he too was so polite and nice.

Cass’s daughter Kira was just a sweetheart. I would see her in the hallway at times and she always stopped to talk.

Patty’s boys were super nice and also would say hi anytime we ran into them. We got to know Caleb more, and he was a lot of fun. I really think he had a good time this cruise and I think Patty was happy he decided to hang out with other kids and not stay with her and Fred 24/7.

Brook’s Henry is the cutest guy. I would see him running around the ship with his buddies playing the Midship Detective Agency game and he would always say hello to us when he saw us. Most kids that age would never even think about doing that. He’s a super friendly guy and just so adorable. (He may not know it, but we plan to have him marry my niece, Abby. LOL)

All that generosity takes space and that suitcase I brought full of gifts…thinking I would not be filling it with gifts on the way home…was full and I had to put some in one of the other suitcases. I got most of everything together but not completely packed.

After we were cleaned up and mostly packed, we went to 90’s trivia with Jeanne and Emily. Claire came with us, even though it was for adults as we had noticed that since O’gill’s and La Piazza didn’t turn to adult only till later in the evening ,there were often kids at the adult trivia sessions held in the afternoon and evenings. I told Claire if they asked her to leave, to just go back to the room. They never did and she wasn’t the only kid.

We didn’t win, but had fun.

Then we headed to dinner and had an Ariel spotting.

cast66by Jenseib, on Flickr

The last menu is always sad. They are telling us that they enjoyed having us, but you have to leave tomorrow.

Tonight was Royal Court. Cass and family decided to do the pool again tonight, so Patty’s family joined us again. Cass did tell me later that Rob and Kira were the last ones to officially ride the Aquaduck on this sailing.

We arrived at Royal Court, but Nick and Kelsey didn’tshow up. Emily messaged them, but no response.

We made our orders.

cast1by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast2by Jenseib, on Flickr

I think Emily ran back to the room then to see if Kelsey and Nick had fallen asleep….and they had. LOL. They came and both looked so tired. They ordered some food then, but not much.

cast3by Jenseib, on Flickr

Everyone was tired after this long cruise and busy day.

cast67by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast4by Jenseib, on Flickr

We had them do a picture of the 3 girls “sleeping”. LOL.

cast5by Jenseib, on Flickr

Dessert time.

cast6by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast7by Jenseib, on Flickr

Jeanne’s birthday was coming up after our cruise, but we noted it was her birthday, so they brought her out a treat and sang.

cast68by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast69by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast8by Jenseib, on Flickr

They also brought her cans and cans of Coke Zero….her favorite drink. We lingered around dinner a bit and talked. We saw Brook leaving her table and Henry in complete tears. We figured he was sad the cruise was coming to an end and later she confirmed it. He had had to say goodbye to his tablemate, who became a good friend on the cruise…and it was hard on him.

We had to say goodbye to our servers too. I really liked Ferdi again this trip. He was super friendly to us and he did a good job. Lewis also had been super nice and seemed to get better at the end of the cruise. Ferdi asked me when my next cruise would be and I told him I am currently booked for next Oct., but on the Magic. He told me to ask for him whenever I make it back to the Fantasy. I asked him if he would be on THIS Oct. as I have a friend sailing then and he would be for the first part of the month and we have requested him as her server and I hope she gets him. (And she just got off last weekend and did have him)

Finally, after lots of talking, we got up and left our last dinner. Jeanne and I decided we needed a picture of the kids so we headed towards the Walt Disney Theatre. We had them pose in front of Walt’s picture. They had been carrying the cans of Coke Zero, so they started doing silly poses with the cans.

cast70by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast72by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast73by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast74by Jenseib, on Flickr

And then back to the room to get the bags out for the night and be sure everything was packed.

cast75by Jenseib, on Flickr

Claire settled down to finish her last movie and I headed back out. I got to talking to someone and was about to go get some drinks for Claire and I when I got a message from Cass. Let’s meet up!

cast76by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast78by Jenseib, on Flickr

cast77by Jenseib, on Flickr

I messaged Claire that I was going to go see Cass before coming back to the room and I found Cass and we sat in the adult area and chatted for about 30 minutes or so. It was the best time I had with Cass this trip. We had no family interrupting us and we could be just ourselves with each other. I felt so sad that we didn’t spend as much time as I had hoped to during this cruise. I know that she gets tired easily, so I never wanted to bother her too much to have her do things with us. I think she had a few days where she was feeling a little sick too.

We had such a wonderful talk, and I wished I could have seen her more this trip. We talked about what we did, about the annoying family next to me, about the kids, and how we wished Kira and Claire would have hit it off better, and how we would have to travel together again without the family so we could have more time together.

Claire had been messaging me and I kept telling her I was talking to Cass, and then once we left, I told her I would be down shortly, but I still needed to get drinks. Well I ran into the hypnotized lady, and we got to talking too. She was really such a nice person and we talked for probably another 15 minutes or so and I finally had to leave as Claire kept messaging me.

I got back to the room, chatting cheerfully to Claire, when I noticed the red eyes. She was crying. She didn’t want the cruise to end. She wants to cruise again with “these people”. LOL. All the same people on this cruise ship…..except the annoying neighbors. She was devastated that she wouldn’t be able to hang out with Kelsey, Emily, Nick and Caleb anymore. They were all so wonderful and she had so much fun with them. I felt bad and reassured her that we would try to make it happen again in the future. I had a good time too and I was going to miss them all. I loved all my friends we sailed with, but Jeanne and I ended up spending the most time together because neither of us had spouses onboard. We even started referring to each other as our “cruise wife”.

I told Claire she is very fortunate to have been able to do this cruise as not many kids her age that she knows has ever even been on a cruise, let alone a 10 night one. She agreed and finally calmed down and we went to sleep. It was the end of our cruise, but we still had 2 more days at Disney World, so we did need to get some sleep.

July 8, 2017, Day13, Disembarkation Day

All good things must come to an end and today was that day for this cruise. Luckily we were staying in Florida for a few more days. Most of my friends had flights home at some point today, with a few going over to Disney Springs before heading the airport. Jeanne’s family would be doing some more Disney time as well.

I went up top to take a look at the port while Claire got ready.

debark3by Jenseib, on Flickr

debark1by Jenseib, on Flickr

I went back and fetched Claire and we headed up to Cabana’s for breakfast. We were taking DCL transportation back to Disney today and we had to be on the bus by 9 AM so eating in the dining room was out of the question for us today. I actually prefer Cabana’s on the last day though anyways.

As we left the room, we noticed that the room next to us with the terrible family had a bunch of ship officers outside and also customs officers…..hmm wonder what is going on?

I had debated renting a car or taking DCL transportation for quite some time. When I had the original flight that left WDW very early on our last day, I figured having a car would be the best option. When I changed it to a later flight, I looked at what a 1 day price would be for a rental for one day and Alamo was sold out. I could still get a car with other car vendors, but there was no way to return it the same day without going to the airport. In the end, DCL transportation was the most cost effective and convenient.

As we ate, our friends all started coming up too and we started saying our sad goodbyes. Cass messaged me that Rob tried to come into Cabana’s but was told it was closed. I told her to send him back as it was not closed and people were still coming in.

Claire was pretty sad that this cruise was ending, but she hooked up with everyone and they all started inputting their snapchat and Instagram info so they could stay in touch.

debark4by Jenseib, on Flickr

We gave everyone hugs and wished them all safe travels home. We really didn’t want this cruise to end. It was just so amazing and we had so much fun as a group.

We headed back to the room to grab our carryons.

debark2by Jenseib, on Flickr

We saw the custom officers were still inspecting the room.

debark5by Jenseib, on Flickr

Cass got a better picture.

debark17by Jenseib, on Flickr

As we went in our room I did say to one of the officers….”I don’t want to be nosey or know what’s going on….but these people were the worst neighbors ever! They were loud and ran up and down the hall and were not nice at all”. He said ok, thanks, and we went in our room and fetched our bags and headed down to get off the ship.

And we were met with this.

debark6by Jenseib, on Flickr

The line was all the way back to the stores on this side and there was a second line going back towards Animator’s Palate too. Jeanne and Patty’s family got in that line a little later and for some reason they seemed to be moving faster.

We inched our way to the exit.

debark7by Jenseib, on Flickr

debark8by Jenseib, on Flickr

debark9by Jenseib, on Flickr

debark10by Jenseib, on Flickr

Jeanne and Patty’s family were almost by our side. Claire was mad we weren’t waiting with them so she could see them some more.

debark11by Jenseib, on Flickr

Someone is NOT happy that the cruise is over….I hear ya Claire!

debark12by Jenseib, on Flickr

Just as we were just a few people away from check off the line stopped and they told us they had to wait for it to clear downstairs in customs a bit more. Then we started moving a family a few people in front of us was told they could not get off. I believe their credit card was declined and they had to make other arrangements to have the bill paid. They argued a bit, but really they were just holding up the line. It’s not like these CM’s are going to say..OK, I’ll take your word for it. At that time then Jeanne and Patty’s family passed us and waved and laughed that they were beating us off the ship.

As for the credit card issue with that family….I actually heard that several people had this issue. It seems that many card companies were stopping charges because of them being out of the country. I never have had this issue, but it certainly can be one. Since I was going to different ports than I have been to before, I did notify my CC Company that I would be cruising and they asked for the ports and then told me if there was a change in ports to let them know. Um….OK…I won’t have wifi. LOL.

We headed down the stairs and there were porters waiting and we did tell them we would need help. We had a girl this time…..never had a girl porter before! We gathered our bags and she took us through customs and then led us over to the DCL buses and asked which resort and led us to the correct bus and dropped our bags off. Super easy and well worth it for us to have a porter. The less I have to handle the bags the better.

We boarded the bus and it did leave a little after 9, I think because so many were having issues getting off the ship in a timely fashion. We are now on our way to Disney World once again….with another new to us resort…All Star Music!

debark13by Jenseib, on Flickr

Goodbye my beautiful ship!

debark14by Jenseib, on Flickr

debark15by Jenseib, on Flickr

We both kind of dozed as we made our way back to Orlando. I did check emails and facebook as well. Someone in our cruise group said that a man had been arrested and taken off the ship in handcuffs. I wondered if it was our neighbor. I later heard through the grapevine that it probably wasn’t him, but that his room was picked in a random customs inspection because they were not US citizens. I like to still go with the theory he was arrested. LOL!!!!

The ride seemed to go fast and soon we saw this.

debark16by Jenseib, on Flickr

We pulled into Music and unloaded and grabbed our bags. I had gotten an email that our room was NOT ready yet. Never had one of those before. LOL. So we checked our bags in at Luggage services and took a quick look around.

music78by Jenseib, on Flickr

music41by Jenseib, on Flickr

music42by Jenseib, on Flickr

music43by Jenseib, on Flickr

music44by Jenseib, on Flickr

music45by Jenseib, on Flickr

music46by Jenseib, on Flickr

music47by Jenseib, on Flickr

music48by Jenseib, on Flickr

With our stay here at Music, I have now stayed at all the Value resorts. Also with my stay at Riverside pre-cruise, I have now stayed at all the Moderates.

We headed off to the bus stop to wait for a Hollywood Studios bus. Our fastpasses were for there today and we needed to get a move on to enjoy the park before they came due.

We boarded the bus and it was a pretty full bus, but we found seats. The whole ride there, there was a child who cried…but it was more of a fake cry….the whole entire ride!

We arrived at Hollywood Studios!

hs31by Jenseib, on Flickr

Last Oct. we did not go to the parks, except for the Halloween party one night. But we did take a bus to Hollywood Studios to transfer to a boat over to the Yacht Club. Claire had teared up when we arrived…sad we weren’t going to the parks, but these were tears of joy with all the good memories she had coming as a kid (as she was much older then at the age of 11. LOL). She promised she wouldn’t tear up today!

hs1by Jenseib, on Flickr

We entered the park and we heard Storm Trooper music and there were crowds all around. We caught a quick glimpse of the Storm Troopers leaving.

hs2by Jenseib, on Flickr

We moved on then.

hs3by Jenseib, on Flickr

I could tell the crowds were a little less than when we had been here before the cruise.

hs32by Jenseib, on Flickr

We made our way to the Great Movie Ride. At this point it had not been announced that they were closing it, but I had heard rumors over the past few years that it may be going, so we wanted to ride it at least one last time.

The line moved fairly fast and as we were close they were ready to send out a tram and asked for a party of 2. We’re a party of 2! They were going to have us fill in a row, but there was no way 2 people would fit in there. The row ahead had room for another person though, so I sat there and Claire sat behind me.

hs33by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs34by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs35by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs36by Jenseib, on Flickr

We had a girl gangster today.

hs37by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs38by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs40by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs41by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs42by Jenseib, on Flickr

hs43by Jenseib, on Flickr