Boo to the Halloween on the Highs Seas Crew Oct. 2016, Fantasy Trip Report

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Back in Gail’s room, Abby was having a ball. She was very impressed with her “formal” self.

 

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We wanted to get some pictures taken so we all headed to the atrium.

 

Cinderella was passing through.

 

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The atrium was packed and the lines for professional photos were all super long.

 

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We decided to just go off to the side and do our own miniphotoshoot.

 

 

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Ariel was out visiting with people too.

 

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Then it was time for dinner so we headed into Royal Court.

 

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Claire and I ordered the Princess Delight. This is one of our favorite drinks.

 

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Someone had wine. I guess I felt compelled to take a picture of it.

 

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I got the escargot. Whenever I get this, almost always does someone ask if they can try it. I always think…it’s included with your cruise fare…just get an order and if you don’t like it…pass it on to me. LOL.

 

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People started putting their plates out for me to take pictures.

 

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This was mine.

 

 

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As was this.

 

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This was Amanda’s allergy free appetizer.

 

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A lot of times they just would surprise Amanda with the appetizer and dessert. She really kind of felt spoiled at times. I think she liked almost everything they brought out for her too.

 

This was my entrée. It was ok, but not great. I wasn’t a fan so much of the noodles. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t love it so much as to want to eat the whole plate.

 

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They came around and took photos.

 

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After dinner, Geoff got an expresso and the cup was so tiny and I took a picture. However, you can’t tell how small it is in the picture.

 

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Dessert time! I love the soufflé here!

 

 

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Aunt Mary got “Nothing”

 

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Claire probably got another Mickey bar....or her and Alexis skipped dessert so that they could go and get a cone up on deck.

 

I took a few pictures of the restaurant.

 

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Most evenings after dinner I really didn’t see much of Claire. She would hang out with Alexis and often with Amanda or Aunt Mary and Geoff. Sometimes they would go to the DLounge to watch Karaoke or whatever game show they would have. They kept saying they were going to sing, but I don’t think they ever did. I would just go off on my own, or sometimes just chill in the room..or head to the club with Geoff or Amanda. Tonight, some of us were going to go see Taylor Mason, who is a ventriloquist. I have seen him in Feb, and I enjoy him. Come to think of it, I think he was part of the show the first night too, which is why we wanted to go see his adult show.

 

I took a walk for a bit before it was time to meet up. I love the lights in the water.

 

 

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Amanda messaged me that she had a table in the Tube and I made my way in there. There was a game going on when I arrived and it was funny to watch. The teams had to collect items to bring up for points and it was hysterical. Guys wearing high heels and bras and stuff like that. It’s funny to see these women take off their bras right under their shirt with hardly any effort. I have never mastered that talent myself. LOL.

 

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The lights in here are so cool.

 

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Here are the guys carrying purses and wearing heels. It was pretty funny.

 

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After the game ended it was time for Taylor.

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He works with the crowd and though his shows can be similar, they can be different too, depending on the audience.

 

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After the show I went and got a drink up top to take back to the room for Claire and I and then I messaged Claire to come back to the room as well. I think tonight she was waiting for me when I got back.

We flicked on the tv and watched a bit. It has a sleep timer, so I would set it to go off in about 30 minutes.

 

It was a great day and we really packed a lot in. I had scheduled our breakfast and meet and greets the first day so that we would have the rest of the cruise to do what we wanted when we wanted. I think it was a good decision.

 

Tomorrow was another Sea Day and we were happy to be able to have more relaxing time.

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Oct. 24, 2016, Monday, Day 6

 

Today was a Sea Day.

I slept in as long as I could and then I went off to explore. I took a lot less pictures today.

 

The pumpkin tree had grown pumpkins now…probably because today was the Halloween on the High Seas day.

 

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I went to check out my pictures and finally they were showing up. Some were missing and I had to get them added and it took several days for those to show up.

 

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This is the photo studio if you want to make an appointment to get a photoshoot.

 

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I checked out some of the art.

 

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This is one of the magical pictures that interacts with the Detectives game. Claire and Alexis loved this game and did it several times.

 

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I did have one thing scheduled today…..Palo brunch.

Mom and I were going. I am not a big fan of Palo dinner,but I do love the brunch so we made a reservation to do that. We got ready and headed up early and were seated almost immediately.

 

I can’t remember our server, but he was really good. He showed us around the buffet area and we also ordered some food as well.

 

Not our table.

 

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We were seated near the window.

 

They have now started serving you at the buffet though and I found that awkward. I realize they are doing this to prevent germ spreading, but it was just weird to have them spoon up what I want.

 

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All meals must start and end with chocolate covered strawberries at Palo.

 

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I went back up then when fewer servers were around and took some pictures.

 

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I was annoyed though because these people were able to serve themselves. Maybe I look germy?

 

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We ordered a pizza and a calzone to share.

 

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Both were delicious.

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I think Mom got the lasagna and I got the chicken parmesan.

 

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It was all so good.

 

Dessert time.

 

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Mom paid for the meal. I told her it wasn’t necessary but she insisted. It was a nice meal and we were very full when we left.

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Claire was with Alexis swimming so I decided to go on my phone and get online with some of my free time….but it was all gone. I knew something happened and it must have not signed out on that first day after I set it up so I went off to the internet help desk.

 

Today there were 2 Halloween parties going on and we were going to the 2nd one but they had all the stuff set up.

 

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The internet help lady tried to tell me that the free package wasn’t even enough to open it up one time so that is probably how it got used. I am not a techy but I knew that wasn’t true. I had used that free amount over 4 days in Feb and still had time left over. I just would peek in at mail or facebook and maybe post a picture or 2. I told her that this was not the case as I have used it before and I needed it reset. I even showed her I had all the important things turned off on my phone. She did end up resetting it for me but she acted annoyed. I am sure her job is full of annoyance though because if you don’t have things turned off on your phone it eats through the time super fast and people complain all the time about it.

 

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I then found the kids swimming and watching a movie.

 

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Then it was time for ice-cream.

 

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At 3 there was Disney Tunes Trivia in La Piazza so we all headed there. That place was so crowded and we had to make the kids stand. We worked as teams and you needed to get the song name and movie. Some we had no clue for all, or only knew one part and not the other and others we just got totally wrong. They only would play a snippet and it was pretty hard. Abby was actually pretty good at this and helped with some of them. We didn’t even come close to winning, but it was a lot of fun.

 

After the game we waited for it to clear out and we got some motorcycle pictures.

 

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We then used the cool bathrooms in the area.

 

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We then chilled out some more and then it was time to get ready for the party. Claire was not going to wear the wig and there was no way I could make her…that’s fine….grumpy!

 

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We saw Gail and kids and went to go by them.

 

 

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This was one of Claire’s old dresses.

 

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They had characters in costume and trick or treat stations….and it was insanely busy and unorganized.

 

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This was the only station that was fairly easy to get to because most people didn’t realize there was one up here.

 

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Little Violet was Snow White and just so adorable.

 

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We found this trick or treat station a little less busy too.

 

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I totally cracked up at this guy’s costume.

 

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See the madness! This is how the atrium area was the whole time.

 

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After the trick or treating we went back and got changed and soon it was time to head to the show. Tonight it was Wishes. I thought this show was pretty corny, not one of the better ones. But I had to laugh each time Amanda recognized the guy who played Aladdin the night before…and she would get all excited.

 

The music and songs were good, but the actual story line was not impressive to me. I could have skipped that part and just went on to the dancing and singing….oh I love this song…it’s one of my favorites! LOL.

 

Again at the end I took a few pictures with my cellphone.

 

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Back to the room where we had a bat waiting for us tonight.

 

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And Claire chose to sleep in the murphy bed tonight and that was set up for her.

 

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Just a note…those rounded legs at the end…..kills your shins when you try to go out to the balcony when the bed is down. I hit it several times over the next few days as I would go out late in the evening or early in the morning. I spewed a few not so Disney words a time or 2.

 

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Tonight’s dinner was at Animators Palette and we were having the Crush show tonight.

 

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My favorite…I actually ordered this as my main course.

 

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Crush came around and talked to people and he talked to Rob. Rob hates to be the center of attention and I could tell he was sweating pretty hard and trying to not faint. LOL.

 

 

The photographers came around tonight too and Claire quickly noted that this was our 2 pictures for the day. LOL.

 

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Alexis, who was just across the table and down a bit,messaged Claire and told her to skip dessert so they could go get ice-cream cones. LOL

 

 

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I don’t remember what I got for dessert as again I failed at picture taking. I am sure it was good.

 

Tonight was Ricky Kalmon’s adult show in the Tube, so Gail,Amanda, Geoff and I all headed to the tube right after dinner. The place was packed and we kind of got separated so that we could either find a seat or a place to see the stage.

 

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He called for volunteers and he asked for them to please use the stairs. Well word must have gotten out about him and tons of people went running up. Geoff walked up calmly but people were jumping up on the stage without using the stairs and grabbing chairs. Geoff literally took the last seat available and several were turned away.

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I took video and pictures of it. They might not be in the right order.

 

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Video 1

 

 

Video 2

 

 

Geoff said he did not smell anything. He did say he felt like he was starting to go under but never did all the way. He is kind of a guarded person, so we figured he just couldn’t let himself totally go relaxed and not be in control.

 

Video 3

 

 

Eventually Geoff was told to go back to his seat. He said it was a fun experience but he wasn’t about to lie or pretend he was under.

 

There was a part where they were supposed to imagine the audience naked and we prayed that Geoff wasn’t under then. Hahaha.

 

The guy with the black shirt with a circle on it….HILARIOUS!!!!!! He was totally under. The final thing they did was to pretend their hand was a puppet and the puppet would sing along with music. They had about 4 people do it and they were funny but you sometimes wondered if they were totally under as they would sometimes drop the hand puppet. The black shirt guy never dropped his down when watching. He would even clap still keeping his puppet hand up. It was like he was totally oblivious that it was there. So Ricky says he is done and black shirt guy is still up there….. We are all like what!!!!????

He laughs and says he saved the best for last and he has him do his puppet song and it was just so funny. He was so into it. I swear we had tears coming down our eyes watching it.

If you get a chance to ever see Ricky, please do it. He is a lot of fun.

 

After the show it was time to go get my nightly drink upon deck and collect my daughter once again. Tomorrow we would be arriving in Tortola!

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Oct. 25, 2016, Tuesday, Day 7

Tortola

 

Today we were finally going to dock at our first port! I was excited. This whole Eastern Caribbean cruising was new for me. I have done many Western and Bahama cruises,but never made it to an Eastern port. The destination was one of the reasons I wanted to go on this particular sailing. I wanted something new!

 

As always, I was up fairly early and we were making our way into port. It was just stunning.

 

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I thought this was interesting…I guess a house being built on the mountain side…probably for me!

 

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Believe it or not, as we were docking we would get some off and on rain sprinkles. Nothing major, but enough to make things wet.

 

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I just love this next picture….it is how I picture these little islands….lots of little boats.

 

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You can barely see it in the next picture, but there were chickens running around.

 

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Claire and I got ready for our day and headed off to get some breakfast.

 

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After we were sure our bellies were full we looked out at the beautiful port.

 

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The water color is just amazing!

 

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A bad pano.

 

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We had to meet down in the Tube for our Excursion. Gail’s family was also going. Actually Gail picked the excursion.

When I had researched Tortola, the options really weren’t fantastic. The one that stood out to me the most was the Baths. Also snorkeling was catching my eye. Gail wanted to do a dolphin swim….mainly for Abby. Abby is an animal lover! I am betting she will eventually become a vegetarian because she loves animals so much. She is sort of flirting with it right now when she realized that chicken was actually from a chicken just recently….however, after a few days she did realize she really does love meat too. LOL.

Abby also wants to be a mermaid. She really truly believes that when she grows up she can become a mermaid. Gail bought her the whole mermaid tale and swimsuit set up for her birthday.

 

Since Gail’s family was going to do the dolphins, we decided we would too. Claire and I have done a dolphin experience in Nassau, but never a swim. I figured we would do the swim and then have that off our bucket list. When looking to do Dolphin swims and encounters, I would not list Tortola as the top place to do it, but it was the only place on our itinerary offering it.

 

I have been researching the Baths then and a little more now as it is a potential for a future cruise. I am still unsure about that destination for us. There is a lady on Cruise Critic who posts some fabulous trip reports and I try to follow her and all her postings. She recently did the Baths. She is pretty adventurous and after reading her report I am not sure I could handle the Baths. Mainly the caves. There are tiny openings you have to wriggle through and she said her family complained the whole time. It ended up being one of her least favorite places and she has gone to many. After reading that, I was glad we didn’t end up going there this trip.

 

Sooooo…We met in the Tube and we had to go and sign in. I got in line and waited and waited. There were a few different ones checking inhere. It was now my turn and a lady came up to the side of the table and asked the CM a question. The CM then tells her she is not sure and gets on the phone to ask.

 

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This ticked me off. The CM should have told her to either get in line with the rest of us or wait till she was done checking people in. I hate people who feel entitled.