Cruise Day 12: Sea Day

Day 12 brought us the first full day aboard the ship for our TransAtlantic voyage....which was exciting because we were so looking forward to this portion of our trip.  We sailed a TransAtlantic cruise with Disney back in may of 2007----only in the opposite direction...and we still have so many amazing memories of how wonderful that cruise was---we were looking forward to having a similarly wonderful experience this time (maybe even better since THAT time we lost 6 hours in time changes....and THIS time we GAIN 6 hours!! LOL)

Beginning the TransAtlantic portion of the trip was also bittersweet, however, because it meant we had begun the trip home.  I know people all thought we were nuts to take a trip that lasted almost a full month....but I'm not kidding when I say it has FLOWN by and we wish we could stay longer!! LOL

As you can see from today's magnet, today was a day at sea...so Jason chose an image that was both Disney and nautical! :)

OK so I should warn you that this will be a shorter post than normal....because we had a pretty lazy and relaxing day lounging about on the ship...but also because we don't have any pictures from the day at all.  On Day 11, we didn't have pictures because we didn't really take any....but we actually DID take pictures on this day but become of some technology snafu when I tried to download them to our computer----they were all lost.  It was very frustrating....but I have to admit that I'm glad it happened on a day when we were at sea and there were fewer pictures rather than a port day when we've been taking anywhere between 100 and 200 pictures a day!

So I will do my best to just describe briefly what we did this day.

We were able to sleep in a bit, but still got up around 8:30 and went up for breakfast.  The weather was much nicer than it was the morning prior (in fact, actually, the weather had pretty much cleared up entirely around dinner time the day prior in Barcelona).  So it was a lovely day to just spend time on deck by the pool and on our stateroom veranda reading, relaxing and playing games.    In the late morning there was another reception for Gold and Platinum cruisers (those of us who had completed 5 or more cruise with Disney prior to this trip).  We went to that to get some free snacks and a picture with Captain Mickey (a copy of which, of course, was lost from our camera....but when we get the photo CD from this leg of our trip we'll have one and post it).  We went to the reception with our table-mates Johanna and Kimberly but left before it was over because Johanna had a spa appointment to get her nails done and we and Kimberly wanted to go get pictures with characters taken by the Shutters folks....

....and so now might be a good time to talk about PhotoQuest!!!  What is PhotoQuest, you ask?  It is only the most fabulous unofficial Disney photography competition ever!!!.....created by us and Kimberly and Johanna!!  We were very fortunate to get to know them on this trip because they love photos just as much as we do....and so we set out to see who could amass the biggest collection of photos on their CD by the end of the cruise!! LOL  So we were all in every photo line and at every photo opportunity we could be!  There's no way Jason and I could win----because they took many pictures individually and Jason and I only do pictures together.....plus, in all fairness....Kimberly is a goddess of getting her picture taken....she has an amazing knack for being in every line ahead of us and sweet talking both the photographers and the characters into taking extra pictures and poses with her...LOL...of course, I'd never admit to her face that she has us whipped, but she can't read this blog until she gets home anyway because the site is blocked on the ship! *wink* LOL-------seriously, though....it's been a real hoot to "compete" with them for pictures on this trip!

Hadley,

Our internet on the ship is kind crappy today...so hopefully my last poast with shutters photos came through and this one will, as well....

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Cruise Day 12: Sea Day

Day 12 brought us the first full day aboard the ship for our TransAtlantic voyage....which was exciting because we were so looking forward to this portion of our trip.  We sailed a TransAtlantic cruise with Disney back in may of 2007----only in the opposite direction...and we still have so many amazing memories of how wonderful that cruise was---we were looking forward to having a similarly wonderful experience this time (maybe even better since THAT time we lost 6 hours in time changes....and THIS time we GAIN 6 hours!! LOL)

Beginning the TransAtlantic portion of the trip was also bittersweet, however, because it meant we had begun the trip home.  I know people all thought we were nuts to take a trip that lasted almost a full month....but I'm not kidding when I say it has FLOWN by and we wish we could stay longer!! LOL

As you can see from today's magnet, today was a day at sea...so Jason chose an image that was both Disney and nautical! :)

OK so I should warn you that this will be a shorter post than normal....because we had a pretty lazy and relaxing day lounging about on the ship...but also because we don't have any pictures from the day at all.  On Day 11, we didn't have pictures because we didn't really take any....but we actually DID take pictures on this day but become of some technology snafu when I tried to download them to our computer----they were all lost.  It was very frustrating....but I have to admit that I'm glad it happened on a day when we were at sea and there were fewer pictures rather than a port day when we've been taking anywhere between 100 and 200 pictures a day!

So I will do my best to just describe briefly what we did this day.

We were able to sleep in a bit, but still got up around 8:30 and went up for breakfast.  The weather was much nicer than it was the morning prior (in fact, actually, the weather had pretty much cleared up entirely around dinner time the day prior in Barcelona).  So it was a lovely day to just spend time on deck by the pool and on our stateroom veranda reading, relaxing and playing games.    In the late morning there was another reception for Gold and Platinum cruisers (those of us who had completed 5 or more cruise with Disney prior to this trip).  We went to that to get some free snacks and a picture with Captain Mickey (a copy of which, of course, was lost from our camera....but when we get the photo CD from this leg of our trip we'll have one and post it).  We went to the reception with our table-mates Johanna and Kimberly but left before it was over because Johanna had a spa appointment to get her nails done and we and Kimberly wanted to go get pictures with characters taken by the Shutters folks....

....and so now might be a good time to talk about PhotoQuest!!!  What is PhotoQuest, you ask?  It is only the most fabulous unofficial Disney photography competition ever!!!.....created by us and Kimberly and Johanna!!  We were very fortunate to get to know them on this trip because they love photos just as much as we do....and so we set out to see who could amass the biggest collection of photos on their CD by the end of the cruise!! LOL  So we were all in every photo line and at every photo opportunity we could be!  There's no way Jason and I could win----because they took many pictures individually and Jason and I only do pictures together.....plus, in all fairness....Kimberly is a goddess of getting her picture taken....she has an amazing knack for being in every line ahead of us and sweet talking both the photographers and the characters into taking extra pictures and poses with her...LOL...of course, I'd never admit to her face that she has us whipped, but she can't read this blog until she gets home anyway because the site is blocked on the ship! *wink* LOL-------seriously, though....it's been a real hoot to "compete" with them for pictures on this trip!

So we spent most the morning with Kimberly getting photos taken and then went for lunch.  After lunch, we had to get up to the spa because we'd booked couples massages.  These were very relaxing and a nice way to spend an afternoon aboard the ship----so relaxing, in fact, that Jason says I fell asleep during my massage! LOL

After our massages, we played games for a bit, then started getting changed.  Tonight was formal night and was the on stage production of "Twice Charmed"----the show I wrote about on the Med cruise which is kind of a sequel to the Cinderella story....and which Jason and I love.  "Twice Charmed" night also means formal night.  Tonight we wore our disney Princess vests and ties and buttons (that's right, I even made buttons with the princesses on them! LOL)----that featured Belle, Cinderella, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) & Snow White.  They were a huge hit and we got many compliments on them....AND a fun interaction with Princess Aurora-----we ran into Aurora in a hallway that evening (she wasn't posting for pictures formally, just mingling with the crowd) and asked to take a picture with here.  We showed her our vests and ties which bore her image and she was tickled pink (for those of you who know her....the pun is intended...lol...she wears a pink gown! *smile*)  Anyhow....she was complimenting the vests and said, "Oh those are lovely, did your fairies make those for you?" And I immediately replied, "No, I made them myself"....and then quickly added, "So, yes, I guess a fairy DID make them!" LOL  Aurora had no idea what to say but I think she was fighting the urge to laugh...and I know Kimberly and another fun cast member, Dave, who were standing there snickering.  We all thought the whole thing was very funny...but I somehow think that an encounter like that had not been a part of Aurora's formal Disney training! LOL

As I said, all our pictures from that day were lost....however, I do have some pics to post here.  Of course I was able to take pictures of the vests and ties and buttons themselves....but also later in the cruise there was a chance to take pictures with some of the princesses on a formal background and so we put our princess tuxes back on and took a few pictures...so I'll post those now (out of order) so you can see how we looked:

After dinner, we decided to head to bed because we wanted to be rested for our next day:  Gibraltar.  We had a towel animal in our room...but of course our pic got lost....however, we were able to BASICALLY recreate it (because we remembered what it looked like and, thankfully, it wasn't a very complicated one):

See you all in Gibraltar!!