April 2016: A WONDERful Vacation. Trip Report Day 7: The End

Day 7, Sunday May 1, 2016

I was correct. I woke to the engines turning the ship around about 4:30 am. I got up long enough to take a look around and be blinded by the lights on the Miami police boat before crawling back into bed for about another hour.

When the alarm went off, I had to get up. I checked in with the outside world and then finished packing my carry on and completed my customs form and that darn comment card.

Once it was late enough, I headed down to Shutters to get my photo CD and to Wavebands to get my contraband...I mean...rum. The pick up process for both was easy. I was very impressed by how securely they had taped that rum bag shut though. There was going to be no getting into that.

Back in the room, we watched the chaos below us at the port for a few more minutes. 

Then it was time to head to breakfast. We entered the hallway just in time to say bye to Sentana, who was present as always, and to see the hazmat spacemen walk by. I’m talking full on zip up CDC uniforms and full ventilated facemasks. No messing around here!

As we walked down the hallway, we knew exactly which rooms had had reported stomach bug cases. There were checklists outside those doors to be completed with what time the linens were changed, what time the room was sanitized, and what time the room was FOGGED. Yeah, we’ll sail Disney again.

We had to be out of the rooms by 8 but breakfast didn’t start until 8:15. This made things a little awkward. We stood in line for a bit outside Parrot Cay before the line started moving and we were allowed in. While we were slowly moving toward the restaurant, we heard the announcements that the red Mickey luggage tags had cleared customs, so we knew we’d be all set when we finished eating.

Breakfast was lively with us finding each other on facebook and wrapping up conversations. We got to see the cutest, and saddest, menu ever. 

I think Nick got the Route 66, which is scrambled eggs and a bunch of breakfast meats. I got pancakes. I can’t eat most breakfast meats, so this menu was a tricky one for me.

When breakfast was over, we said our goodbyes to our tablemates and to our serving team. What a wonderful few days it had been! Then we gathered our carry ons and headed for the exit...of the ship:(

We exited from deck 4 about 9:15, swiping those key to the world cards and hand sanitizing one last time. We then re-entered the upper level of the terminal building and...stopped. For a LONG time. Once in awhile we’d move a few feet, but mostly we just stopped. We did have a nice view of the ship and the signage.

Once I was home from the trip, I heard that this long pause was because some people had gotten sick in the customs line, so they’d stopped the line to allow for cleaning. Sadly, this wouldn’t surprise me.

Eventually we started moving again and Nick and I were the last group allowed on the escalator down before they held the line again (for a shorter amount of time, judging from when more people got in line behind us). The escalator dumped us into a warehouse like building with what felt like a million baggage carousels. The sections were well marked, and pretty soon Nick found our suitcases and rejoined me in the line moving toward customs. There was no doubt that the customs officers knew we were a “sick ship”; many were wearing masks and all were wearing gloves. I’ve never been through customs before, but I suspect this was not the norm. I also noticed certain families, who looked exhausted and pale, being escorted down one specific, generally empty line, to an official wearing a mask, so I wonder if they were trying to keep those who had been quarantined still separate from the masses.

It took a long time to get to customs (an hour from swiping our key cards off the ship), but once we did, the process was really quick, with the officer simply asking how much alcohol we had purchased and what else we had bought on the ship. Then it was time to leave.

Outside again, we passed the table for confiscated items and had a good laugh at what people had attempted to get on board. Knife block sets, immersion blenders...Really...with all the food (that you already paid for) on the ship, you need to bring your kitchen with you?!

The walk to the parking garage was subdued and soon enough we were repacking luggage at the rental car, and then hopping in the car toward Fort Lauderdale. The drive was easy, and we were back at the airport about 11:10. Good timing. The flight is at 1:20, and it’s a Sunday, with one of the big ships in port in Fort Lauderdale.

Rental car return was quick, there was no one in line at check-in, and pretty soon we discovered just what a good packer Nick is. His suitcase weighed in at exactly 50.0 pounds.

Once the bags were checked (don’t breathe on Nick’s!), we headed for security, which didn’t take long, and pretty soon we were attempting to find food, in an airport where food doesn’t really exist. For a decent sized airport, we were surprised by how limited the choices are.

I got a sandwich and Nick got pizza and we settled in to wait for the flight. We both had boarding passes in the mid B range, so Nick decided to go see if they had an upgraded boarding position available. He ended up with A7.

Boarding began eventually and Nick found a spot in the second row. I joined him when those of us slackers who bought EBCI close to the flight finally got on board. Apparently even more people use EBCI when flying from FLL than from MCO.

The plane was fully boarded 15 minutes early. Cool! Maybe they’ll let us off the plane in Baltimore for a few minutes. We pushed back from the gate about 7 minutes early and taxied to the runway. Then we stopped. And sat. Well...so much for stretching legs in Baltimore. After a few minutes the pilot came over the PA, and we could hear the annoyance in his voice as he told us that we would be returning to the gate. Seems that as we were taxiing, they rerouted our flight, adding an extra 500 miles to the trip to avoid some storms. So we needed additional fuel.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a plane drive that fast! We were back at the gate in no time and the doors were very rapidly disarmed and opened. But we sat. And they attempted to answer panicked questions that we knew all too well from last year’s little adventure where they had to take attendance by hand, delaying an already delayed flight even further. The pilot came out and talked to us, promising that he was getting us to BWI safely, because he had a wife that he was going home to tonight, safely. He did say it would be a pretty bumpy flight even with the reroute.

We left the gate again sometime after 2, and were cleared for departure immediately. I was just grateful that a) I wasn’t going to be racing for a connection this time and b) they didn’t have to do the safety spiel again.

It was a VERY bumpy flight to Baltimore, despite the reroute. The flight attendants were seated for probably 80% of it. I read a bit and listened to music, wishing that we hadn’t gotten one of the “classic” planes as they were calling it, with no WiFi. No flight tracking for me.

As we landed in Baltimore, the flight attendant called out gate numbers for connections and promised that flights were being held. We arrived at the gate and the mad rush ensued, complete with what was nearly a smackdown between a father and an elderly woman, when she cut off his 7 year old who wasn’t keeping up with him and that wasn’t making it known that she was with him. Good times!

We were staying on the same plane for the trip to Boston, so we got to watch all of the chaos unfolding. I hate the flights where you stop but don’t change planes, but today it was a good thing.

When everyone but us through passengers had deplaned, the crew finished tidying things up and then the next crew got on the plane, joking with us and the pilot about how we had traveled halfway across the country to fly up the coast. Yay?

Boarding was quick, and pretty soon we were on our way again. I expected the flight to Boston to be just as bumpy, but it was much smoother, overall. Yay! However, upon landing, we taxied around the whole flipping airport. Why does this matter? We really wanted to catch the 7:25 bus back to NH. By the time we arrived at our gate it was 7. The next bus was at 8:25. That one wouldn’t have us back to our house until almost 11 pm.

We deplaned quickly and walked about 5 miles to baggage claim. Nope, no way are we going to make that bus… Oddly enough about the same time I arrived at baggage claim, the bags started spilling out. I got really nervous realizing they were coming down a chute and landing hard, knowing that there were 2 bottles of rum in Nick’s suitcase. Hey, if it can survive the turbulent flight it can survive that too right? Of course...did the rum survive the turbulent flight?

Our bags emerged eventually, and just as we turned toward the door, we saw the bus arriving. We beat feet outside and raced toward the loading zone, JUST making it there in time. Our luggage was loaded on the bus, we climbed on, and a few others who made it because the driver had been loading our luggage, followed us on board.

The trip back to NH took about an hour and a half because there were several stops along the way. It was raining and cold and all I wanted to do was hop on a bus back to the airport and go back to somewhere warm.

We arrived at the Londonderry bus terminal just about 9 and easily found my car. We made it home about 10. Our first task? Opening the suitcase to find out the status of the rum. It survived!

Overall thoughts:

Wow. Such an amazing vacation. We didn’t scratch the surface on all there was to do on the ship or on Castaway Cay (or Nassau or Key West for that matter). My biggest concern had always been not having enough to do. That wasn’t an issue.

We were really surprised at the value of the cruise, even paying the Disney premium. When we really started breaking down the costs, it was a tremendous value. The quality of the product was awesome too.

I totally understand why Disney went 14 years without a significant stomach bug outbreak. According to news reports, reported cases topped out at about 5% of the ship. Not great, but not as bad as another ship that’s been making headlines lately. Although I became a little neurotic about doing all I could to avoid the bug, I felt very confident in all that Disney put into place to assist in my not catching that bug. I cannot describe how visible their actions were. Those CMs were EVERYWHERE, cleaning EVERYTHING...even the pages in the sales book for DVC. And I have a hunch that they’ve been reviewing policies since to figure out what else they can do.

This was my first experience with the bus from Boston. It was easier than I’d expected (we prebought tickets before we left), and we won’t hesitate to use it again if we need to fly to or from Boston. I much prefer flying to and from Manchester. It’s so much more convenient. I’ve also found the security to feel tighter in Manchester than it does in Boston, which blows my mind. Most of you know we lost my great aunt on one of the flights from Boston on 9/11. And Nick had several former employees injured in the marathon bombing. We’re painfully aware of what has happened in that city, and I take serious issue with how lax the security feels there. But, for this trip, the flight home was $200 cheaper (1 way, per person) into Boston than into Manchester. For that price, I have to suck it up. So it’s good to know the bus makes Boston a little easier for when there is a dramatic price difference.

My second big concern prior to cruising was variety of food. I’m a picky eater and have a lot of foods that don’t work out so well for me. I had no problems finding foods that I could eat, and that I liked eating.

I know the newer ships have more bells and whistles. I also know that the Wonder is going to get some upgrades when it goes into drydock this fall. But we still really enjoyed the ship and didn’t feel like it lacked ANYTHING. Maybe our opinion would be different if we had sailed on the Fantasy first, but the Wonder is still an incredibly themed and maintained ship, with an abundance of activities, and an enthusiastic, energetic crew.

Bottom line? I’m really looking forward to our next Disney Cruise!

April 2016: A WONDERful Vacation. Trip Report Day 6, Part 2

Day 6: Saturday April 30, 2016, Part 2

From the theater, we headed straight down to deck 1 to go explore Key West. I took some pictures from the dock area before we headed into town. 

The path we walked out on from the dock deposited us right on Whitehead Street, so we just started walking, with the Southernmost Point as our destination. Whitehead Street is also route 1, so along the way we were able to take a picture of the Mile 0 sign.

Joking that we could just follow Route 1 north from here and eventually end up in NH (no thanks!), we stopped in a little souvenir store for the necessary post cards and Christmas ornament for my vacation tree.

Shopping done, we continued on along Whitehead, taking in the sights along the way...like the lighthouse surrounded by trees?

Eventually we made it to the Southernmost Point and joined the line for pictures. As we got close to the front of the line, the guys behind us volunteered to take our picture. Sweet, no selfie this time!

After picture taking, we walked over to the snow cone cart that was conveniently parked nearby and got a couple bottles of water and a couple snow cones. It was by far, the hottest day of the trip! We sat down near the big buoy to cool off and take in the other sights...like the giant iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks by the water.

Snow cones finished, we walked a block over, and then headed back up Duval Street, enjoying the sunshine and popping into different shops. As we got further up Duval, it reminded me of Bourbon Street...but 100 times cleaner and a lot more tropical feeling.

Eventually we made it to our next destination: Kermit’s for Key Lime Pie! While there, we picked up a marinade that we had seen at Robert is Here and decided we wanted. I got a slice of the regular key lime pie and Nick got the chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. Delicious and refreshing!

Sufficiently refreshed, we continued walking up Duval, finding it amusing that they were setting up for a bed race. The town next to ours does one of those too. As we were walking, Nick decided to see if there were conch fritters available anywhere. Alexandra had mentioned them at dinner the night before, and he’d been craving them since, apparently. We poked our heads into Sloppy Joe’s, but a seat was nowhere to be found, so we walked a bit farther and found the Conch Shack. Nick ordered some fritters and more bottles of water, and I found a seat nearby.

The fritters took awhile, but apparently they were worth it. Nick was very pleased with them. I tried them and found them weird...basically a hush puppy with pieces of seafood in it. I passed the time watching the rooster that was nearby, watching Nick. They were everywhere in this town!

Once Nick was done with his conch fritters we turned back toward the ship. Restroom breaks were needed and it made sense to just use those on the ship since they were that close by, and possibly drop stuff that we had bought off in our room before continuing to explore. However, we checked the time and realized that the Jungle Book was starting in 15 minutes, and there was really nothing else we HAD to do in town, so we decided to just head for the movie theater on the ship. After stopping for a picture of course.

Sanitizing was still a heavily watched process as we returned to the ship, and we were questioned about the marinade to make sure we weren’t trying to smuggle alcohol by them, but pretty soon we were on deck 5, and after quick stops in the restrooms (DON’T TOUCH ANY SURFACE) and the snack stand, we were finding seats in the Buena Vista Theater to see Jungle Book.

Jungle Book had been a movie that we were intrigued by, but not entirely sure if we wanted to pay to see it. When we realized it would probably be shown in the theater when we were onboard, we decided to see it then. After all, we wouldn’t need to pay extra for it. We both LOVED this feature of the cruise, and I’m sure that, had it been a longer cruise, at the very least Nick, would have seen more movies.

We both thought that the Jungle Book was well done, but were surprised by how intense it was for a PG movie. We were also impressed by how few kids freaked out during some of the more intense scenes.

After the movie, we headed back to the room to do some more packing. The delivery that might be even sadder to find than a Magical Express notice had arrived: 

We read the customs info and realized we probably needed one more form. We both live in the same house, but we’re not “family”, so I went down to Guest Services, after calling home and taking a few last pictures of Key West from the balcony. We’d be sailing away while we were at this evening’s show. 

The line at Guest Services was insane, so I headed for Shutters to make sure all of our pictures from the previous night had made it into our account. After that, the line was still nuts (why can’t they just put the Customs forms where they usually put the Navigators?), so I returned to the room to get ready for the evening.

Packing continued, and I changed out of the sundress I’d been wearing. Evidently sunscreen had been forgotten while trying to go between brunch and immigrations and I’d turned a bit lobstah-like that afternoon (oops), so I figured it’d be best to cover that up with a t-shirt.

About quarter of 6, we headed down to the Walt Disney Theater for the last time during this cruise. Disney Dreams was the show for the evening and we both were looking forward to it, after it had been talked up throughout the cruise.

While waiting for the show to start, I did some googling to figure out some of the ingredients in the evening’s dinner offerings (Have you heard of calabazza? I hadn’t), and eventually thought to google “Disney Wonder news”. Sure enough...one of the cruise slander sites had picked up on the stomach bug outbreak on the ship and was reporting about 105 people were sick. Ok...that’s not a horrific percentage.

About the same time the show started, I could feel the engines start. Cruise director Peter, once again, introduced the show. We really liked him. Such a nice way about him. He had us all laughing, and then the show started. It was fantastic, and very worthy of all the accolades it’s gotten.

When the show ended, we joined the masses streaming into the gift store to make all those last minute purchases. Nick wanted some picture frames for all those pictures we had had taken, and we wanted to find something for his mom to thank her for watching the dogs the week after she returned (jet-lagged) from Ireland, and to get her thinking about the cruise that we will absolutely get her on some day.

We picked out picture frames and a Captain Mickey and Pirate Minnie ears (for the pirate party she will attend) and then I headed for Guest Services for a customs form (again, why can’t they just have a stack of them somewhere) while Nick hopped into line to pay for his purchases. I think I beat him back to the room, but not by much.

We finished packing about 8, and hauled our luggage out into the hallway before heading down to Parrot Cay for dinner. Sentana, who I’m convinced lived in the hallway, was quite impressed that our luggage was ready so early. So were we! He handed us the infamous comment cards, and we were on our way to one last dinner on the ship.

Parrot Cay was hopping, and the meal was extra lively. I had the St. Maarten Stack as my appetizer (mozzarella, grilled calabazza and zucchini), the “spiced” tomato soup, and the chicken. The only thing I remember from Nick’s meal was the grouper, served with jambalaya. I remember because he ended up getting a second portion that was the size of two portions (thanks Harlan!). He liked it!

The food was all really good again. The service remained fantastic (although, I think they could pick one member of the serving team to give the “you need to fill out your comment card” lecture, rather than ALL of them), and we enjoyed our evening again. We were all pleased to find out too that we would all be at breakfast the next morning. As with most nights, we were some of the last to leave the restaurant.

After dinner, we headed back to our room, where we found our last towel creation waiting for us. 

Once again, I made the mistake of crawling into bed too soon after dinner, since I knew I’d be waking up to the engines probably before 5 am. Once that mistake resolved itself, I fell asleep, knowing the next day would be a long one.

April 2016: A WONDERful Vacation. Trip Report Day 6, Part 1

Day 6, Saturday April 30, 2016

The last full day of vacation. I woke up about 6:45, and realizing that we were heading due west, and the sun, according to our Navigator, was supposed to rise about 6:50, I quickly grabbed my camera and headed out onto the balcony.

Perfect. My 3 goals for the cruise (try the konk kooler on Castaway Cay, see a sunset at sea and see a sunrise at sea) had all been accomplished. I aimed high folks!

Once I was done taking pictures, I grabbed the remote and turned the volume down enough so that I could channel surf a bit while Nick continued his one-man snorechestra. Eventually he got restless, so at that point I was able to justify doing some packing.

Nick woke up eventually (we were in no hurry this morning) and the packing continued. When we started to see land getting close, I switched the phone out of airplane mode, and sure enough I had a signal that wasn’t roaming. I had something like 160 emails, 22 facebook alerts, and even 15 emails in my work email, despite everyone being on vacation. I did some catching up with the outside world. Eventually we started getting ready for brunch at Palo. Thankfully, Nick wore actual dress shoes this time. We docked in Key West right around 10 am. 

About 10:15, we headed down to the Walt Disney Theater to see if we could get through immigrations before brunch. Tai, the same guy from the future vacations desk, saw us dressed up and accurately guessed exactly what we were up to. He told us to get in line because if the customs people got on board early enough, the process would be quick. However, he also told us that we had docked a few minutes later than expected, so everything would be delayed by a few minutes, and that it would take awhile to process the whole ship, so don’t be afraid to go to brunch and then come back. And then he handed us hand wipes.

We stood in line until 10:27, at which point, we headed for brunch. We can do this later! Thankfully, Nick had figured out how the ship was arranged, because I clearly had not. He led us to Palo, and we got there just in time. We were seated just a couple minutes after arriving, and were offered either mimosas or champagne. We both went with mimosas.

Because the buffets had been placed on lockdown, we were handed menus. After looking over the menu that was divided into half a dozen different sections, I asked our server (Sasha, I think) how this all works. Everything I’d read about Palo was from stomach bug free sailings. After all, as I would find out later, this was DCL’s first significant outbreak in 14 YEARS. What I had read described brunch at Palo as a buffet, with some additional hot options to order.

Sasha told us to just look over the menu and he’d get us whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted it. He ran through his recommendations. Nick ordered some nutella stick thing and eggs benedict. I ordered chilled strawberry soup, melon and prosciutto, and chicken parmesan. It was all absolutely amazing.

Nick had apparently never tried eggs benedict before. He all but licked the plate. When Sasha came back and asked if there was another entree he’d like, Nick ordered the eggs benedict that had salmon on it. He loved that too.

Once we’d finished eating, Sasha reminded us that there was still dessert. He offered to make us a sampler of all of the dessert offerings. Sure!

It should come as no surprise that we finished virtually none of the dessert options on that plate, but we sampled all of them. They were all delicious, although I didn’t like the peach and almond souffle nearly as much as I had liked the grand marnier souffle at Triton’s.

After admitting defeat, we settled the check just in time to hear the “last call” for those who needed to go through immigrations. This turned out to be the first of about 10 last calls. We headed back to our room, where I quickly changed shoes and Nick changed out of his dressy clothes, and we continued down to deck 4 to the theater.

The immigrations process was quick. This was just a check, rather than customs, so we just had to show our passports and Key to the World cards. They had multiple immigrations officers set up throughout the theater with multiple CMs directing traffic. The process took very little time at all, and on our way out of the theater they stuck a sticker on our card to prove we had been through immigrations. When I say sticker, I mean the same sparkly star stickers that I buy at the dollar spot at Target for my students’ sticker books. Super secure stickers!

April 2016: A WONDERful Vacation. Trip Report Day 5, Part 2

Day 5: Friday April 29, 2016, Part 2

After the movie, we headed back to the cabin. As we were walking down our hallway, we passed a room where a heated discussion was occurring between some in the hallway who clearly were staying elsewhere, and the occupants of the room. It was clear that they had been found to have the stomach bug and they were not impressed with being quarantined. It also sounded as though they’d started with it more than 24 hours ago (aka boarding day), and had tried to carry on with cruise activities. Mystery solved? Side note...how does anyone carry on with normal activities with a stomach bug?! The last 2 I’ve had have had me in bed for a good 24 hours after the heavy duty symptoms and sleeping on the bathroom floor phase have passed! I couldn’t comprehend trying to board a cruise ship under those conditions. We hightailed it away from that cabin and got back to ours where we had received our information for immigrations in Key West the day. Uh oh. The time they wanted us to be in the Walt Disney Theater was 15 minutes after our reservation for brunch at Palo.

We also noted when we entered our room that the message light was flashing. I listened to it and it was a recorded thing from the hotel director saying that while the majority of the guest onboard were unaffected, a larger percentage than usual was experiencing stomach bug symptoms and to notify the medical center immediately if we experienced any symptoms. No kidding...

I did some people watching (I now understand the term “port runners!”) and picture taking from our balcony and then from that aft deck just beyond our room.

After my picture taking was done, it was off to Guest Services to find out how they suggest we solve this little issue. There was a bit of a line here as they were passing out packages of bottled water and canceling port excursions left and right. Umm...so how few people have this stomach bug? The line moved quickly though, and the girl told me to try showing up early and see if they were ready, otherwise, the immigrations people would be on board for awhile, so we could arrive after brunch. Ok, problem solved.

While I was at Guest Services, the ship started moving, so I headed out onto deck 4 to watch us leave Nassau. 

From here it was off to the gift stores to finalize my purchases for the trip, because I knew tomorrow would be busy with timelines and I wanted to have a lot of packing done before we went to brunch. Here I saw more evidence of the precautions they were taking. All of the gift store CMs were gloved, and to avoid touching anything, they were using room numbers provided verbally to look us up in the computer (and compare our appearance to our security picture), rather than swiping our room keys. Wipes had also made an appearance at every register.

After making some purchases, it was off to Shutters to make sure all of our pictures thus far were in our account and to verify whether I needed to do anything for my pictures to appear on the CD I had prepurchased.

Sure enough, one of my pictures was missing from the digital account, so the CM filled out the paperwork for the lab to find it. She was very helpful and said to check back later; they would find it. She also said that all I had to do was show up on disembarkation morning and the CD would be waiting for me. That’s easy!

One last stop before getting ready for dinner. We’d been discussing whether this was something we wanted to do again over the course of the day (it was!), and when I told Nick about the placeholder option, he basically acted like I had 10 heads for having not booked that yet. So, it was off to the Future Vacations desk to get that booked. Tai from New Zealand took care of that, and the process took all of 4 minutes. Easy! For those who haven’t done a Disney Cruise, a placeholder is when you book on board, saying that you intend to sail again in the next 24 months but you don’t yet commit to a date. You pay a deposit, they give you a reservation number, and when it’s time to book a cruise for real, you get 10% off the cost of the sailing, and an onboard credit. It’s kind of a no-brainer.

Time killed, it was time to go get ready for the evening. It was dress up night. I’m NOT a girly girl, at ALL. But I had found some cute sundresses at Old Navy, so what the heck. Even Nick had agreed to dress up.

Of course getting ready required ironing. I think I had ironed that dress more in the last week than all of the rest of the ironing I’ve done in the last 5 years! Don’t buy a white sundress. It shows every wrinkle! So, off I went to the laundry room, which was conveniently located just down the hall from us. My goal was to not touch ANYTHING except the iron and sanitize heavily after ironing. I’m not typically neurotic about germs, but we REALLY didn’t want the stomach bug.

Ironing complete, I got ready, had a quick snack with food we had brought from home (I wasn’t ordering room service with the amount of deliveries they were doing to sick people!), and it was off to the Walt Disney Theater for Toy Story the Musical.

We got to the theater shortly before the doors were opened. Sandra, the server from Serenity Bay was circulating. When she saw us, we were greeted like old friends. “Mr. Nicholas, do you need anything? What I can I get you to drink?”. WOW! The Disney difference.

Nick ordered a can of Strongbow, and we headed into the theater to wait for the show to start. Sandra delivered the cider a few minutes later. We noticed that they’d done away with the receipt holders to eliminate one more point of contact for germs, and you had to just sign the receipt using arm rest. Wow, Disney takes this seriously!

Toy Story was fun. There was a little more focus on Sid (the Van Gogh of Violence!) than was really necessary, but it was a cute show, and I’m glad I got to see it before its rumored end when the Wonder goes into dry dock. We both were really impressed in the caliber of the 2 shows we’d seen so far on this cruise.

When the show ended, we headed for the atrium. I knew this was the last night with backdrops, and felt we should definitely get our pictures taken if we were all dressed up. I was pleased to see that, with early dinner still in session, the lines were minimal. As an added bonus, the live music in the atrium tonight was fantastic. I have no idea who was performing, but they were great! So, we made the rounds for pictures, and I was pleased that only one photographer neglected to notice what Nick was wearing on his feet before starting to take pictures. 

Picture taking done, we wandered up to the pool decks, where we found that the soda station was staffed/no longer self-serve, and there were no snacks available in Cove Cafe. More casualties of the stomach bug. We found some comfy seats outside Cove Cafe and parked it to watch the water until dinner time. We were moving full speed tonight. The previous day had been just 60 miles that we needed to cover. According to that awesome map channel, it was 320 miles from Nassau to Key West. And they anticipated docking around 10 am. We had left Nassau about 4 pm.

Dinner was in Animator’s Palate again, and it was show night! I was really looking forward to it! Even the menus were cute tonight.

The photographers made an early appearance tonight. 

I had the truffle pasta things for an appetizer, the butternut squash soup, and the pork with tomato risotto. I don’t know what Nick had for an appetizer, but I know he had the baked potato soup and the beef tenderloin. I LOVED the soup, the pasta appetizer and the risotto. The pork was a bit dry, even by pork chop standards. Nick’s soup was also fantastic! And he enjoyed his beef so much that Harlan (who had done a total 180 and was no longer acting nervous at all) brought him another serving of it.

Once again conversation flowed freely, with the stomach bug a large topic of focus. It sounded like ground zero for it was deck two, where Andy and Jackie were staying. UGH. We all shared stories of what we’d seen so far (black lights being used in cleaning in the atrium, quantity of cabins with yellow bags outside, etc). The joys of being at a table with a pharmacist, a nurse, and someone that works in an elementary school? The other hot topic at the table for the week? The heroin/fentanyl crisis in NH. No...no one at all would be able to tell what occupations were at that table!

The show was fun. I know it’s a lot more high tech on the newer ships, but it was a lot of fun to watch the restaurant change colors, and to see the energy of the serving staff. And you can never complain when Mickey parades through the dining room! We really enjoyed this dining room. It’s just fun!

Dessert was good too. I had the white chocolate fudge cheesecake. Nick got the Mickey sundae. I’m not sure why I didn’t get a picture. My dessert was VERY rich. He seemed to enjoy his. I think he also joined HR guy in getting a Mickey bar, something that was becoming a tradition for HR guy.

After dinner, we cruised through Shutters so that Nick could see all of the pictures from the week, and discovered that they’d found our missing photos already! Woohoo! The girl working was the same I’d filed the missing photo report with and she recognized me and came right over to make sure I’d seen that it had been found. Even though it’s not Disney running the picture show, even these employees are great!

From Shutters, we went back to the cabin, where we found the newest towel creation waiting. Tonight was my sunglasses’ turn to be in on the towel animal art. I was amazed they still had time to leave towel animals with all of the extra cleaning that was happening!

We collapsed into bed immediately, which turned out to be the wrong choice for me. The heavy food and short turnaround between dinner and laying down caught up with me, and for a few minutes I really wondered if the stomach bug was showing up. But, it turned out to just be the above factors, and after half an hour or so, I was able to go to sleep. Phew!