Double Dip with a touch of drama - 11/29/19 from Galveston - COMPLETED

ukintheus

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 3, 2009
Hello and welcome to another family adventure on the beautiful Disney Wonder. :wave: This trip had been planned for four of us since the day they released the 2019 fall itineraries, so it had been a while in the making. My nephew, Paul, and his wife, Belinda, also decided to join us about 8 months prior to sailing and so it was another family party. :grouphug: This was also the first time DCL had offered a “double dip” to Castaway Cay itinerary from Galveston, and so the cruise sold cabins quickly (and the price increased along with it!) The sail date also coincided with Thanksgiving weekend, which I’m sure made it even more attractive. :goodvibes

So, our group this time around were Scott and I, my Mum and sister, Maureen, and my nephew and his wife. I managed to get Paul and Belinda’s cabin somewhat close to ours, they were only a few doors down, so it all worked out.

Here we all are on the Fantasy a couple of years ago.




Mum and Paul flew in from the UK in mid-November, Maureen scheduled her flight to arrive on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Scott was scheduled to get home from Saudi Arabia the day before Thanksgiving and Belinda was flying in on Thanksgiving day. :cool1: Plans were made, the travel was all booked and Thanksgiving week rolled around.

Scott and Maureen were both travelling at the same time although one of them had a slightly longer journey!




We had a family Thanksgiving planned at my brother’s house and eventually the six of us were all in the same place at the same time! It was during the afternoon on Thanksgiving day (the day prior to our sailing) that my sister casually mentioned.... that she was going to travel on just her driver’s license this sailing (she officially got herself banished to the old and senile club for this one!).



Needless to say, we had a frantic few hours trying to figure out how we could get her passport from Knoxville, TN to Houston, TX in 12 hours - on Thanksgiving Day. :crazy2::scared::confused: I can tell you now – it’s not possible! :faint: We tried everything we could think of. Fedex were not picking up anywhere on Thanksgiving Day. Airline counter to counter service wasn’t available from Knoxville because of the lateness in the day. We even entertained the possibility of someone driving from each location half way, which would have been a 16 hour drive round trip, just to meet in the middle. Having exhausted all realistic possibilities, my sister ended up having her daughter go to her house and scan both her passport and her naturalization certificate and she sent us the scanned images. Because we were born in the UK, we don’t have US birth certificates, but we do both have naturalization certificates, which are also allowed on closed loop cruises as proof of identity. Of course, you are required to have originals, but at this point we had to go with what we could get. :confused3 We decided to just head to the port with the documents that she had and pray to the Gods of Cruise Paperwork, that it would somehow work out. Yes, I’m leaving a cliff hanger here!! :rotfl2:

Scott and I headed home in the early evening to get our packing done.

November 29th – Embarkation Day

I woke up pretty early and checked the Galveston cruise cam – hmmmmm….no ship. Sure enough, the Marine Tracker app showed her out in the holding area in the Gulf. The Weather Channel app told the tale with a dense fog advisory for Galveston.




I think this is at least the third time, if not the fourth, that we have experienced fog when cruising from Galveston but it’s just so convenient for us that it’s worth putting up with. I shot out a quick message to everyone at about 6:30 am that we were going to start bumping back our meeting time to drive down to Galveston. Scott and I were supposed to be back at my brothers to get my Mum and sister by 9:00 am but we pushed it to 9:30 am as a start.

Our cat, Missy, was very interested in coming with us. :ewok:



Scott and I left the house at about 8:00 am and dropped one of our other cats (Charlie) at the vet as he was going to stay with them for the week. We were on our way into Houston by 8:15 am. It was a very dreary looking day.




Mum and Maureen were ready to go by the time we got to them and so we loaded the rest of the luggage. I got an email from DCL just before 9:30 am that they were pushing all the port arrival times to 1:30 pm and that all aboard was 3:30 pm. We left my brother’s house shortly after that and were on our way to Galveston by 9:30 am. The plan was to meet Paul and Belinda at Buccee’s on I-45 and then we would figure out what we would do based on where the Wonder was. Scott was keeping an eye on her and at almost 10 am the Wonder started to head into the port.



We made it to the causeway bridge by about 10:40 am and decided to park close to Pier 21 so that we could watch the Wonder sail in.





Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas came in ahead of her. She isn’t quite a pretty as the Wonder, and her paintwork isn’t kept anywhere near as pristine. :snooty:




We had a while to wait until the Wonder made her appearance into the ship channel, so here's a random photo of us all hanging about.



Finally at just gone 11 am the Wonder had turned and was backing down to the cruise terminal.





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We could see that people were still in their cabins, which didn’t bode particularly well for a smooth debarkation or embarkation for any of us. But, we decided to go with the flow and go and grab some lunch while we waited. We went into Willie G’s which is right at Pier 21. Our old favorite, Olympia Grill, is now closed down. These aren’t great photos but I’m putting them in there anyway.







After lunch we meandered down to the Tall Ship museum entrance because the Wonder was in Terminal 1 (Carnival terminal) and so it was a good photo opportunity. Typically DCL go out of terminal 2, but that’s the Royal Caribbean terminal and so it wasn’t available today.



The Facebook group was reporting horrendous lines and still no open doors at the cruise terminal at 1:15 pm so we drove over and dropped our luggage and then headed to the seawall to kill a bit more time. We didn’t really do anything other than check emails and messages and stare at the grey, cold looking skyline for a bit.



Patiently waiting.



Belinda is good about remembering to get photographs!



At about 2 pm we decided to go and get parked and head to the cruise terminal in the hopes that we would have outwaited everyone. We were wrong! LOL The line to get into the terminal was about 30 minutes and went all the way down the side of the terminal 1 building. Again, not great photos but Belinda got some of us while we were waiting to get into the terminal.






I think it was about 3:30 pm by the time we got inside and then there were long lines for security. Of course, at this point the nerves were starting to play out on whether my sister’s paperwork would be OK. :crazy2: The first checkpoint was where the port staff check your ID against their list. We told them that my sister didn’t have her passport, but had her ID and a copy of her naturalization certificate – they decided that was OK and let us through. Step 1 down but step 2 where they check you in was going to be the real tale. Paul and Belinda were sent to check in at the Silver Castaway Club line – which was incredibly long – and the rest of us to check in through the Platinum line. The saga was told about the passport. The check in lady got someone else to come and talk to my sister and she took all of her paperwork. She came back a while later and said she would have to get someone else involved. The issue with this particular cruise was that we were not clearing immigration back in Galveston, but would be clearing in Key West because it was our first port of call back in the US after being in the Bahamas. We were asked to take a seat over to the side and wait. :o Paul and Belinda had made it through their super-long check in line and so we all waited. And the final answer was?????? :hyper: Key West immigration would not accept the copies. My sister wasn’t going to be allowed to board. :sad::sad::sad: Uggg….we knew it was totally possible, but you always keep hoping, right?? :confused3 We talked over a quick plan for her to get back to Houston and then the 5 of us had to get onto the ship. It was a sucky start that’s for sure. :guilty:

They were starting muster when we walked on board (via deck 4 – not into the atrium), and had already made the announcement that due to the delayed boarding there would be no sail away party. We went straight to muster with our carry on luggage. As soon as it was over we headed up to our cabins but by now it was almost 5:30 pm. My sister and I were texting as they were trying to identify her suitcase and have it taken off the ship. About 15 minutes later they brought it to the cabin and so I was able to identify which one it was for it to be taken to her. She got an Uber and headed back to Houston. :( It was definitely a yucky, sucky, start to our vacation but we decided that letting it spoil the entire trip was pointless and so we decided to suck it up and just make the best of it. :thumbsup2 P.S. This is the only drama part, so if you got sucked in by the title that's all I've got. :rotfl2:

It was already almost dark by the time we really got into our cabins.



Belinda had ordered the Christmas cabin decorations for their cabin.



I had ordered the Birthday decorations for ours for Scott.









And I had ordered the Christmas decorations for Mum (and Maureen – LOL) We had a connecting cabin with Mum, which worked out great.







Mum’s suitcase arrived and she got busy unpacking and I helped her while Paul, Belinda and Scott went to get a drink. By the time they got back Scott and I still didn’t have any luggage. Our cabin host, Jude, had stopped by several times by this point with all the drama over luggage and non-existing passengers – LOL He told me that he thought maybe he had seen it at guest services. I have no idea how he knew that, but sure enough, when Scott and I went down there they had it and we were able to get it back to the cabin and unpack.

We decided to try and shake off the frazzled and chaotic day that it had been so far and we went down to Crown and Fin for Paul and Scott to play backgammon. Phew….time to decompress a little. We could feel the ship moving while we were in there, and we pulled away from the pier at about 8 pm.

 
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Dinner tonight was in Triton’s. We had requested Maggie from Trindad as our server and it was good to see her again. Paul thought we should take a photo of the “missing person”. :rotfl2:



It was the rotational menu tonight. I had the escargot and the chateaubriand. Scott had the duck, one of the salads (can’t remember which one) and also had the Chateaubriand. Mum had the salmon. The beef was really good and Mum said her salmon was nice as well.









Mum's Salmon.



Paul also ordered a wine package. Slurp! :woohoo:



We cruised through dinner and then the jet lag started to set in for those that had flown in. Paul and Belinda headed back to their cabin and Scott, Mum and I took a quick sneak peak at the new French Quarter Lounge.



We didn’t stay but I snapped these pics of the atrium on our way back to the cabins.





We were back by 10 pm, although no towel animals tonight. The beds had already been made up before we had got in to them due to the short turn around time for the cabin hosts. Day 1 over…phew…time to get into vacation mode and relax to the rocking of the waves. :goodvibes:goodvibes

Edited to add: I forgot to add that I had rented a mobility scooter from Scootaround.com for my Mum. They told me that it would either be in the cabin or behind the elevators on Deck 6 when we got on board. We found several by the elevators and only one had a name tag on it - the rest all had their keys in them, so we took a key from one of them. When we got to the cabin, Mum's mobility scooter had been parked just inside the door - basically in the small passageway by the bathroom door. We got Scott to maneuver it out of there and parked it behind the elevators. I then had to return the key that I "stole" from someone else's scooter! :rotfl: It worked out great, was completely hassle-free to book, and Mum used it the couple of days that we got off the ship. :thumbsup2

Coming Up: Saturday - At Sea Day
 
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You know that I've been waiting for you to start this one!!! teehee

Oh my gosh, your poor sister!! Oh god I feel just heartbroken for you @tennesseemo :( :( :(

Talk about a rough start, eek! Can't wait to read more! I'm hoppin on a jet plane to Cancun in about 38 hours (but who's counting?!) so I'll try and follow along while I'm lazing by the pool, but if not I'll catch up when I get back :banana:
 


My sister wasn’t going to be allowed to board. :sad::sad::sad: Uggg….we knew it was totally possible, but you always keep hoping, right??
That is so sad.

I hope lots of people read this TR though considering how many I see posting about trying to push the limits of documents.

Can't wait to see how the rest of the trip goes
 
You know that I've been waiting for you to start this one!!! teehee

Oh my gosh, your poor sister!! Oh god I feel just heartbroken for you @tennesseemo :( :( :(

Talk about a rough start, eek! Can't wait to read more! I'm hoppin on a jet plane to Cancun in about 38 hours (but who's counting?!) so I'll try and follow along while I'm lazing by the pool, but if not I'll catch up when I get back :banana:

Have an amazing time in Cancun! :beach: What a great break away from the cold weather! I'm not sure this trip report is going to go quickly as I didn't take any notes - LOL Don't use any internet data packages trying to look for updates from me! :rotfl2:

That is so sad.

I hope lots of people read this TR though considering how many I see posting about trying to push the limits of documents.

Can't wait to see how the rest of the trip goes

Yup, definitely a lesson learned (the hard way). And we will never let her live it down! :rotfl:
 
Saturday, November 30th – At Sea Day



Scott woke up super early this morning which is somewhat typical for him when he is still adjusting to the time difference. I woke up at just gone 7 am and we mulled over what we were going to do for our coffee fix. Our clocks had gone forward one hour last night, I forgot to mention that! :teeth:

It didn’t take long to decide to order from room service and they delivered it by 7:50 am. They also asked me about my platinum gift selection, which was handy, and so I got that order out of the way as well. :thumbsup2 I ordered extra juice and a coffee cup for Mum, just in case she wanted anything. We were still figuring out the DCL app for messaging but managed to get everyone on the same message group at some point that morning. I did manage to reach Mum eventually (she was in the shower) and she came in and had some juice.



Scott’s birthday was going to be in a few days and because I knew he would love to have his pressie a few days early, he got to unwrap his gift this morning. A new lens for his camera. He was a happy camper and we all benefit from the good photos. :flower:



Eventually we got everyone organized enough to decide what to do for breakfast and we all agreed to go and see what Cabana’s had to offer. We got some door pics before we left. I had made most of these magnets for this trip thanks to some crafty folks on FB. :lovestruc






Belinda gets an Aussie Mickey Head, she's got a UK passport now, but she was born in Australia. :upsidedow (Upside down....get it?) :teeth:



It was just before 9 am when we got up to Cabanas and it wasn’t too crowded. I had cereal and fruit and so did Mum.



Scott had a mix of stuff which apparently included spinach. :scared: He has wierd breakfast tastes! ::yes::



We enjoyed a nice, relaxing breakfast and then decided to take a quick walk around to show Belinda some of the ship. This just reminds me how much it messes with your first day when there is a fog delay. :cool: Losing that first afternoon on board completely really throws you off. I forgot to mention that I had run to Palo on the first night to try and get Paul and Belinda added to our brunch. They were very helpful and got us squared away, which was awesome. :) Anyway, this was really our first chance to get out and about on the ship and it was a beautiful day.







Awww...Scott didn't let me down. :lovestruc Here's an oil rig/platform photograph, which I normally snap as we sail out but it was already dark yesterday - and we were at dinner! He's a keeper. :flower3:






After meandering around on deck 10 Scott and Paul had their sights set on the target. :sail:





Signals was given a bit of a face lift during the last dry dock, and looks nice and refreshed. We got ourselves situated by the bar.



Here's Mum and I, although I'm holding my hair down because it was pretty breezy today!



Morning special of a Mimosa – yummy!

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Scott and Paul both have beer mugs – which makes them happy peeps.



While we were sitting there one of the servers came around with the bloody Mary cart. We first tried these on the Panama Canal cruise in February and they are delicious. :thumbsup2 They are made with fresh tomato juice that is prepared each morning on at sea days and you can only get it from the "special cart". :banana: Mum had one without the vodka. She said it was a bit spicy, but as the ice melted she enjoyed it.



We had another round of drinks while we enjoyed the sunshine. Paul tried the drink of the day, I think it was a High Tide, and deemed it "pretty good." :drinking1



The first trivia session of the cruise was starting at 12:30 pm so Mum and I popped down to our cabins first. Looks nice out, doesn’t it?? :laughing:



We then headed off to Crown and Fin, which was weirdly empty, to discover that we were in the wrong place and we needed to be in Azure. Football games threw the trivia session schedule off a little bit over the weekend, but thankfully they got back to normal after a couple of days or we would never have found where we should be! :rotfl2: Deano from Dublin was our club host for this cruise (tree!!)



TV tunes trivia isn’t one that we are good at seeing as a. most of us aren’t from the US, and b. we also all have horrible memory issues evidently! ;) We scored 18 out of 25 on that one, which honestly wasn’t that horrible all things considered.




Next up was 70’s music trivia and we scored a decent 44 out of 50 on that one and left fairly happy with ourselves. :goodvibes



We had mixology scheduled at 2:00 pm which was conveniently right around the corner in Cadillac Lounge. We had a bit of a wait and I tried to get a photo with Mum and Paul but the pesky daylight coming in messed with it. Oh, well, here it is anyway.





Mixology was good. I don’t remember what the drinks were now (can you tell I didn’t take notes this time..ugg) but we drank most of them, although we left a few, which should be a huge shock to anyone that knows us. We had a little while to wait while they got everyone inside and seated. Waiting….waiting….






 


First up was a fruity punch type cocktail.



Next was a cosmo of some type.



I’m totally spacing on what this one was but I think it had passion fruit puree or something like that. :rolleyes1



Good job Belinda! Gotta keep up with the drinking! :rotfl2:



Next up was a lemon drop martini type one. As you can see Belinda and I are lagging behind at this point, although Mum wasn’t drinking many of hers, so those were being passed around between us. She did like this lemon drop one though. :thumbsup2



I don’t have any photos of the last drink, which was a chocolatey/baileys combo type shot. Mum decided she liked that one as well, and so she took hers to go. We were all pretty hungry by this point and so we went up to deck 9 to see what the offerings were at Daisy’s etc. I got Mum a sandwich and then went and got pizza for Scott and I. I think the fact that you are basically slamming the drinks in Mixology is what gets you! 5 drinks in just under an hour is pretty fast drinking! :drinking1



The combination of having food in our bellies after the drinks made everyone sleepy so we all agreed that downtime in our cabins were in order. :cloud9:They had delivered our platinum gifts – I got the fruit for Mum and the Prosecco for Scott and I.





Paul and Belinda went to see the Golden Mickey’s and Scott, Mum and I went to the pub quiz at 6:30 pm. It was held in D Lounge and there were only 4 other people there, so there were 3 teams total. In the end we all ended up with winner’s key chains because Deano was grateful that anybody turned up at all! :laughing:

Tonight we had dinner in Animator’s Palate and it was the rotational menu.



I don’t remember who ordered what, but Scott and I got the chicken and walnut salad and the Arugula leaves salad. My guess is that I got the Arugula with the beets. :teeth:





We both ordered the beef tenderloin, and so did Mum. Let me tell you, this piece of beef was absolutely fantastic – one of the best steaks I have had on the ship in a long time. :love:



A couple of desserts were ordered, including the sticky date pudding and the chocolate fudge cheesecake.





Then it was time for the show. :banana:




I always enjoy this show on the Classic ships, it’s fun to have Mickey come in to the dining room. pixiedust:







Consensus after dinner was that nobody had the energy to go to Azure for the adult entertainment this evening. We were back in our cabins by 10 pm. Tonight we had this bear waiting for us. I admit that I missed having a towel animal last night…it’s always fun to see what you a have when you get back to your cabin. :flower3:



Coming up: Sunday – At Sea Day
 
Looks like your typical first fabulous sea day :lmao: :jumping3:

But you left drinks behind in Mixology? Nooooooooooo......you disappoint me :rotfl2:

What a lovely birthday gift for Scott, such a thoughtful wife he has :love:
 
My heart literally dropped when I heard about not being able to board because of documentation. To be soo close only to miss out. I remember reading a thread about a guy who missed the boat because he was looking for his family that got separated (they ended up on the boat). I hope a redo is in order! Looks like the refurbishment turned out just lovely too!
 
Haha back from Cancun and you haven't updated yet! Bless you, I've got several others to catch up on :rotfl2:
 
How wonderful to be reading another of your trip reports. How sucky that your sister could not cruise! It had to be hard leaving her behind. I hope she had trip insurance to at least help soften the pain of missing her cruise.

Your mom looks great, I hope she had a great time and I am glad she had a room connecting to your room since your sister was not bunking with her.
 
Sorry I haven’t got around to updating yet! We just got back off a four night, girls cruise with my Mum and Sister. :lovestruc I am hoping to get more done this weekend.
 
So thrilled for the three of you and especially your sister. :boat: Hope it was a perfect trip for all. Love your trip reports and can't wait to read the rest of this one. Will you do one for the 4 night cruise as well?:surfweb:
 
Enjoying your report and great pictures. So sad about your sister, I wonder if her documentation could have arrived in time with the late start. But, you would have had to have known about that earlier.
 
Scott’s birthday was going to be in a few days and because I knew he would love to have his pressie a few days early, he got to unwrap his gift this morning. A new lens for his camera. He was a happy camper and we all benefit from the good photos. :flower:


What a great gift! That is my go to lens, especially on DCL! Hope he loved using it as much as I do!!! 📷
 
My heart literally dropped when I heard about not being able to board because of documentation. To be soo close only to miss out. I remember reading a thread about a guy who missed the boat because he was looking for his family that got separated (they ended up on the boat). I hope a redo is in order! Looks like the refurbishment turned out just lovely too!

It was definitely a live and learn experience and not one any of us want to repeat ever again. The refurb of Promenade Lounge is great - they did a great job.

Just noticed your report. Looking forward to following along again. :)

Thanks! Hoping to get caught up a bit over the next few days.

Haha back from Cancun and you haven't updated yet! Bless you, I've got several others to catch up on :rotfl2:

How was your trip? Did you have a great time? I have been horribly slow on this one as it's a busy time of year at work which means less time to play on the internet! Ha ha

How wonderful to be reading another of your trip reports. How sucky that your sister could not cruise! It had to be hard leaving her behind. I hope she had trip insurance to at l help soften the pain of missing her cruise.

Your mom looks great, I hope she had a great time and I am glad she had a room connecting to your room since your sister was not bunking with her.

I always get the trip insurance but DCL have been awesome and gave her a credit for half the cabin fare for a future cruise - it was an unexpected gesture on their part that they had no obligation for. :lovestruc

So thrilled for the three of you and especially your sister. :boat: Hope it was a perfect trip for all. Love your trip reports and can't wait to read the rest of this one. Will you do one for the 4 night cruise as well?:surfweb:

Thank you! I am going to do one for the four night - I took notes for that one. :)

Enjoying your report and great pictures. So sad about your sister, I wonder if her documentation could have arrived in time with the late start. But, you would have had to have known about that earlier.

Thank you! Yes, with the long delay there might have been a slight chance to get them to us, but it would have had to be a counter-to-counter air service and you are then dependent on the airlines being on time - so it would have been a nerve wracking attempt.

What a great gift! That is my go to lens, especially on DCL! Hope he loved using it as much as I do!!! 📷


So glad to hear that it's a good lens - I tried to do my research and he had one that was very similar but not quite as good. He loves it though - I guess lenses are a "thing" for you photographers. :rotfl:

I have grand plans to get cracking on updates today. :banana:
 
I always get the trip insurance but DCL have been awesome and gave her a credit for half the cabin fare for a future cruise - it was an unexpected gesture on their part that they had no obligation for. :lovestruc

DCL scores again! It is actions such as this that makes them outshine all the other lines.

I guess lenses are a "thing" for you photographers. :rotfl:

Yep! That is the case in our home.
 
Sunday, December 1 – At Sea Day



I was awake fairly early, which typically equates to when the sun rises for me. :rolleyes: I’m not sure whether it’s an internal clock thing or just the daylight, but that’s about as late as I can sleep in. That didn’t stop me from being lazy and lounging in bed for another 30-40 minutes though! :rotfl: Scott was awake as well and we had a debate about what the coffee call was this morning. He decided he wanted a coffee from Cove Café and so he went to get them for us. Meanwhile, everyone else was in the process of waking up and getting themselves rolling for the day.




It was looking like it was going to be a picture perfect weather day today. :sunny: And there were tons of flying fish that you could see from the verandah. :fish: I had asked Jude to open up the divider for our verandah with Mum yesterday and so we had a nice, large space out there. It’s hard to see they are fish, but it’s the silver specs. I just love watching them - it's so amazing how far they can go. It's hard to get good photos though.






We all went up for breakfast in Cabanas at about 9:15 am. Scott and Belinda tried the strange cold noodles they had (bottom right here) and both agreed they tasted OK, but were weird to be cold.



I had eggs benedict and a tomato - no shocker there! :rotfl2: It's just so yummy. Mum had fruit and muesli, which is her go-to breakfast on the cruise.






Belinda really wanted to try and sit out and enjoy the pool today and so we went straight from breakfast and found some loungers all together in the shade. Belinda and Paul used the hot tub quite a few times this trip. I think I got my toes wet in the pool, but that was about it. :lmao:



Ahhh….this is the life…no better way to spend an at sea day for sure.



Until this happens….NOW there is no better way to spend an at sea day! ::yes:: :drinking::laughing:



We all tried to read books, and Paul and Belinda got in the hot tub for a while. It's hard for me to concentrate on reading though because I'm nosy and also want to people watch! :blush: The captain came on with an announcement, which none of us could hear. We all just looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and went back to doing nothing. :smooth:

At about noon we realized that we had slowed down enough that we had actually come to a stop. Paul and Scott went off to investigate and came back to report that we were just off the coast of Key West. You could see the cruise ships in port.



I convinced Mum to come up to deck 10 with me to be nosy and see for ourselves. :laughing: As we got up there we saw a Coast Guard boat leaving the ship. Unfortunately, there had been a medical emergency and people had been taken off the ship for treatment in Key West. We have been there, done that one time before so my heart always goes out to anyone who has to go through that. :sad1:



Although I didn’t know it at the time. It turned out that it was a family from our Facebook group whose son had fallen and broken his arm in two places. He was able to have his surgery in Florida and the good news is that they returned to the ship when we docked in Key West a few days later. :goodvibes

Having disturbed ourselves to see what all the fuss was about, we decided we may as well go and see what Cabanas had to offer for lunch. We always start with saying “we’ll just see what they have”, and then before we even talk about anything else, we are all sitting with full plates. :rotfl2:



Everyone decided to get changed and have a break from all this exhaustion, so we went to our cabins for an hour or so before going to TV Tunes Trivia in Azure at 2:15 pm. The trivia schedule was all over the place due to all the football games going on for Thanksgiving weekend but we managed to keep up with where we were supposed to be.



We are not good at TV tunes evidently, with a score of 10 out of 20. :scratchin We all cheered when Fawlty Towers was one of the tunes. However, embarrassingly, Teletubbies was also one we got right – but we did have an Aussie on the team (who conveniently is also a Mum – ha ha.) :blush:



We went to take a look at all the Christmas decorations in the lobby atrium after trivia. The Christmas decorations were one of the things my sister was looking forward to seeing the most. :worried: Although, it’s always good to have a reason to go back again, right?! :p



They had the gingerbread house decorated a little differently this year, featuring the princesses instead of Mickey. I've got more photos coming up later.


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Time for some verandah sitting. Mum didn’t look particularly happy in this photo – LOL – but it was just a bad shot of her, which I'm happy to share across the internet. :rotfl2::rotfl2:



Here’s a better pic of the verandah opened up, it gives you some good photo opportunities and it’s a great way to pop back and forth between the two cabins.



I decided I wanted to go and catch Santa’s Winter Wonderland Ball which started at 4:30 pm. Mum and Scott came with me, Paul said Belinda was napping and they would pass. We got a late start though and there were no good places left to watch from. :crazy2: It was 4:20 pm when we found a spot on deck 5 right above the steps to Tritons, which was the stage area, and this is the view if you stuck the camera out over the side. The real view was mostly obscured by Christmas garlands though. :laughing:



It was cute, and it’s always fun to see the kids having such a great time. Paul sent a message about going to the Pub Quiz in French Quarter lounge and we went down there to meet them at 4:45 pm. Here’s a picture of the changes to the bar, they’ve done a great job with the theming (as always.)



It was absolutely packed by the time trivia started, and very noisy – it was hard to hear the questions. It’s not a great venue for trivia, but they were working around the football again.



We got 15 out of 20, mostly due to Paul and Belinda. :idea: My contribution was pretty much zero. :rolleyes2



Then it was back to the cabins for another quick break from all the strenuous activity. :laughing: The sunset wasn’t as pretty as others we have seen, but it was worthy of a photo.




I'm pretty much at my photo limit, so continued in the next post.
 

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