Day 1 of 6 at sea

Don Ducky Williams




Saturday August 25, 2007
The first day of six days at sea. A lot of people were discussing the facts we had been on board for seven days, on other cruises it would be the day to disembark, and nervous about crossing the Atlantic.

We turn the clock back an hour four or five times this sailing. I can’t keep up. In either case, each time we turn the clock back I seem to go to bed earlier and get up earlier. I can’t read the hands on the clock in the stateroom. The hour and minute hand almost are identical and the alarm hand isn’t a distinctive color. I woke up at a time I thought read 7:20am. I started my morning routine and grabbed my book, thinking I would let Victoria sleep until 8am. I looked at my watch and it said 5:50am! It wasn’t 7:20am when I woke up, it was 5:40am! Sheesh!

I read my book for a little while longer. I woke Victoria up with a bribe of allowing her to choose any spot for breakfast. Of course this meant Topsiders on deck 9. She likes to eat outside. Our plan was to attend the Don Ducky Williams presentation in the Walt Disney Theater at 9:30am.

We finished breakfast quickly and walked around the ship. We got to the theater at 9am, where several people were already lined up. They opened the doors soon thereafter. Victoria was happy because Dominique and Baby Faith joined with their parents. Victoria got to hold five month old Faith and was comparing her to her cousin Xavier.

Don Ducky Williams is the senior character artist who works for the marketing department for Disney. He told us the story of how he came to work for Disney. He used to work as a banker in Springfield, Massachusetts and moved down to Florida when he was in his thirties. While he tells his stories, he sketches characters. Each person was given a raffle ticket upon entrance and the sketchers are raffled off at the end. We didn’t win one. After the presentation we supervised the girls while they went swimming.

Later in the day we attended another presentation with Don Williams where he walks the group, step by step, to draw Mickey Mouse. The kids were getting pretty frustrated with themselves but overall it was a good time. Later Victoria would buy an instructional kit from the store which provides more assistance in drawing the Mickey character.

Sandy, Mary and Victoria had a good time taking pictures together in the atrium area before dinner. After dinner we watched the show of the evening, Twice Charmed, in the Walt Disney Theater. This is a good show and one I would probably go to each time I cruised. I could skip some of the other shows, like the Golden Mickeys but Twice Charmed is a keeper.

Our plan was to watch the movie, Pirates of the Carribean at World’s End in the Buena Vista Theater. It was chilly in the theater and I was snoozing by 10pm. I woke up at around 11pm and watched the rest of the movie. The pirate movies all seem unnecessary long to me. After the movie we went to bed!

Tenerife

Friday, August 24, 2007
Tenerife

I should really have a prescription for Xanax. Honestly, I don't know how I live without it. This was the day 48 people who had pre-paid would take a privately arranged jeep tour of the island. I had contacted the company and wired them money months ago. There was a waiting list of people who wanted to attend. I woke up hour on the hour worried I would oversleep. I was afraid they would not show up. After all, they had half our money and I had not read many reviews from previous cruisers.

The plan was to meet out on the dock at 9:15am for a 9:30am pick up. The weather was great! Everyone was out at the dock by 9:10am. I didn't need the whistle I brought but I blew it anyway. All the fools were on time and ready! The Disney arranged jeep excursions were waiting just outside of the ship. At exactly 9:15am our jeeps rounded the corner, 8 jeeps deep! Another woman had ordered two jeeps and she agreed it was difficult contacting them. All 48 of us boarded the jeeps and went out for our adventure. Our driver was originally from Manchester, England and called all women 'love'. The road to Mount Teide was closed and it took us a bit to find a route to hit the mountain. We stopped at several interesting places but the best part of the day was driving up to high altitudes on winding roads through forests and the smell of pine and eucalyptus. We got out at the top, the base of Teide, and took some pictures. We also stopped for lunch and more photo opportunities. It was a really great day.

Thursday, August 23, 2007
Sea day

I like sea days. We were up by 8am and to Topsiders for breakfast. Victoria went in the goofy pool right after breakfast and pretty much had the pool to herself. We had left notes on Lynn and Darlene's doors so it wasn't long before Victoria's friends Sandy and Mary joined her. We wandered around the ship for awhile taking pictures of spots normally occupied by crowds. We did a bit of shopping in the stores and found some treasures for some folks at home. We met up with the Fools for lunch at Lumiere's. It was nice chatting with a smaller group of folks.

Martini Tasting was scheduled for 2pm. I was actually scheduled to be in the other tasting, but I heard through the grapevine some Fools might be too hung over to attend, so I went along with some other folks. We were served four martinis: a dry martini to which olive juice was added later to make it a dirty one, appletini, lemoncello one and a chocolate one. I liked these better than the previous tastings. People were very silly during the tasting and the giggles were passed on to the presenters who couldn't really finish a sentence without laughter. This tasting definitely packs a punch and I finished up by 3pm to dash up to deck 10 for high tea at Palo.

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My parents met us there for tea. Rather than feeling refined and ready for some polite tea, I was feeling a little too fine and used those scones and tea biscuits as munchies. We had a nice conversation anyway and enjoyed the view. Tea was over at about 4pm and we found the girls and gathered them up. I don’t know if it was the alcohol or the ship was rocking, but I felt a bit queasy.

After dinner the show of the evening was the ART OF THE STORY. We had not seen this show before. We sat in the front row on the left side. Sitting in the theater when I feel queasy/seasicky never works well for me. Maybe because my eyes want to focus on the stage and it appears to sway, I feel sick? I don’t know but when the show started I realized I would feel better in some fresh air. Sitting in the front row as the show starts is a lousy time to come to this realization.

The show began and several monk-like characters in robes walked in front of the stage directly in front of us. I was already apprehensive about leaving the theater and having to walk the length of the theater, disturbing people during the show. When I realized I would be walking on the TOES of the monk-like characters, I became nervous I was going to be sick on the monks and then REALLY ruin the show. I have never gotten sick on the ship so this wasn’t really a rational concern, but you couldn’t talk me out of it at that point.

I left the theater and went outside for fresh air. I immediately felt better. I watched the rest of the show from the back of the theater. When the show was over, my group said they were concerned because they didn’t know where I went. Sorry folks.

We strolled the deck of awhile and went up to open deck 9 while the kids played ping pong and just enjoyed each others company.

Cadiz

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Cadiz

We cancelled our all day excursion to see Seville. We had a leisurely breakfast in Lumiere's. I love the eggs benedict in this sit down restaurant. After breakfast I took Victoria to the kids’ lab so she could learn to make towel animals. She was looking forward to this. I finished my book, the Memory Keeper's Daughter. My reading has slowed down quite a bit. I thought the book was alright but not worthy of all of the hype I've seen it receive. I picked up Victoria at 10:45am and we prepared to walk around the town of Cadiz. We were told the town shuts down between the hours of 1 and 4pm for siesta. We would find out later much of the town remained open that day.

Cadiz is often the launching point to visit Seville. Seville takes a little over an hour and a half to get there. We opted to explore the town and I'm glad we did. It's a very cute seaside town. My father told me later it was the oldest continuous inhabited European town. We bumped into Nancy and family as we were getting off and we joined them. Victoria was thrilled to tour the town with the girls Meagan and Emma. Emma is 4 years old and Meagan is 10. We visited several museums including one which included Roman ruins, Casa del Obispo . The museum was all glass floors and stairs to see the exhibits below us. The girls were a little scared to walk. As hot as it was outside, each time we stepped out of a museum it seemed refreshing to get out of the indoors.

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In this town it was difficult to spot younger people. Plenty of senior citizens were sitting in sidewalk cafes, chatting the day away. I found out later there are less young people in town because the jobs are sparce. We visited the cathedral, the center of town and had a quick lunch in the square. Nancy and I bought the girls a fan from a sidewalk vendor. Our attempts at bargaining were met with, "No puedo." The girls had a good time being drama queens with the fans.

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Our final stop was the Cadiz museum. By 4pm we were hot, tired and had walked all over town. It was fun touring with Nancy and her family. We got back to the ship at 4:30pm, grabbed some drinks and got ready for dinner.

Dinner was in Parrot Cay and was a bit rushed because we had plans to see the Flamenco dancing in town. Our servers insisted we dine in the room and that they would hurry dinner along. They did as promised and we were meeting our group off of the ship at 7pm. My mother opted to stay on the ship and my father came along. We walked ten minutes into town to the bar. The bar was empty when we arrived and our group quickly filled all available 70 spots. We were served green olives and one drink came with our admission. The sangria was good, the olives delicious! We ordered a few pitchers of sangria for the table. The adults really enjoyed the flamenco dancers but the kids thought they were too loud. One guitar player, one singer, one percussionist, and a male and female dancer entertained us for two hours. It was so intense in that intimate setting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H3XRe0-KOQ

We walked back to the ship. We were to leave at 10pm so we were cutting it fairly close. We went up to deck 9 and decompressed for a bit. We went to bed at 11pm but since we set the clocks back, it's actually 10pm. We looked forward to a sea day.

Gibraltar

Tuesday, August 21, 2007


Lynn and I had talked a bit about this port before the trip. We agreed to skip DCL excursions and plan our own. I had read the taxis were regulated and prices fixed for tours. A tour by taxi did not include the cable car to the top of the mountain but it did mean less walking. We agreed to meet in the lobby at 11am. We woke up at 8:30am with our Mickey wake up call. We went to Parrot Cay for a breakfast buffet. Victoria pretty much eats the same thing for breakfast each morning on a cruise: hash brown, bacon, doughnut, and fruit. She usually eats all of the fruit and a bite of everything else. After breakfast we walked along deck four and looked out at Gibraltar. Lynn, Peter, Mary and my mother met in the lobby at 11am. My father chose to stay behind. We wandered off the ship and we met a taxi driver just off the ship and asked for the official Rock Tour. We took another family of three with us in the mini van and we agreed on the price: 30 euros per adult and 15 for children.

We went to a scenic spot and saw a ship sinking. The story we were told was the ship had been fueling up and tried to sneak away, running into trouble and sinking slowly since last Sunday. On one side we could see Spain and on the other the coast of Africa. Next stop was St. Michael's caves. Concerts and dances take place inside the caves. They are beautiful. I had never visited caves before. We spent about twenty minutes there and then moved on to the next stop to see the apes. We stopped at a site where our driver picked out a smaller ape and had him jump on Peter, Lynn, Mary and Victoria. We had been warned about carrying food and aggressive apes. We saw no such drama and the girls would have stayed there all day visiting the apes. We moved on to the tunnels of siege. I'd skip this part of the tour because you have to double back. There are figures of soldiers, cannons and war like boring stuff. At one point you hear a soldier's voice, "Halt, who goes there!" The next thing I heard was Victoria saying, "Halt, you go there!"

The view was spectacular. We could spot the border of Gibraltar and Spain as well as the runway of the small airport. The runway crosses a street and all traffic stops when a plane takes off.

We walked through the cute little town back to the ship. We grabbed some fast food and the girls went swimming while my mother watched them. Lynn and I poked around and went to Cove Cafe, a coffee shop tucked away in the adult’s only pool area. I had a moccachino and we had some cookies. We chatted with a few fools and then grabbed the kids before heading down to prepare for dinner. Dinner was in Animator’s and the color show took place. It was the first time my parents had seen the show. They seemed to enjoy it. Everyone, including the cast members, wanted to watch the ship sail away along the coast of Africa and Gibraltar. We all stepped outside after dinner and watched the sun set and the coastlines as we sailed by. After dinner the girls wanted to do High School Musical karaoke. Five girls sang together on stage. They had a good time. The boys, Andrew and Steven, did not sing along but offered moral support.

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After singing we did a little shopping and headed to bed by 11pm.

First Sea Day

Monday, August 20, 2007
First Sea Day

The ship was pretty quiet when we left our staterooms for breakfast at 9:15am. A lot of people slept late. We went to the Fools Faffle drawing, which was moved to a hallway because the Promenade Lounge was being used. We didn’t win any of Irv’s fabulous prizes. The girls in the group were to meet at Scoops at 11am. Poor Joanne, Hammy, it was her first Disney cruise and we didn’t realilze Scoops is now called Goofy’s Galley. The ice cream machine was broken and the girls decided to change into their swim gear. They splashed around in the Mickey pool while the grownups chatted.

After lunch Victoria changed quickly, bought Sandy a little gift and went to Sandy’s room (with a porch) for a Nintendo DS party and birthday cake for Sandy. I went to the DVC presentation with Carol and kids went to the Kid’s Lab. Victoria had been on board for more than two days and still did not spend any time in the Lab. The presentation started late, the DVD was acting up, and ended twenty minutes late. It was ten of five pm when I picked up Victoria and we rushed to prepare for formal night in Lumiere’s.

Dinner was surprisingly bland. After a good start, the choices seemed limited. Of course that did not stop any of us from eating a five course meal. We attended the Golden Mickey's Show and yet more family karaoke. In bed by 11pm.