{"id":44,"date":"2009-11-06T13:57:28","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T18:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2009-11-06T20:03:31","modified_gmt":"2009-11-07T01:03:31","slug":"our-2009-western-caribbean-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/?p=44","title":{"rendered":"Our 2009 Western Caribbean cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wideanglesm\"
\nHello fellow and future travelers! Below you will find my trip report \u2013 it is lengthy and detailed, so if you just want an overview you\u2019ll want to skip this report entirely. The players are: myself (April), DH (Dave), my dad (Mark), his girlfriend (Sue), and our friends Jenn & Nick. Our sailing began Saturday, October 17, 2009, but I\u2019ll begin this with our trip down.<\/p>\n

October 16th, 2009<\/p>\n

Hooray \u2013 we\u2019re finally leaving for vacation! Dave, Jenn, Nick & I live in CT, so we flew to Orlando from Hartford on Southwest. I always fly Southwest if it\u2019s possible \u2013 they tend to be less expensive, on-time, and provide friendly service. Unfortunately for us it was how-big-a-jerk-can-I-be-day for our fellow passengers. Never have I encountered such an assortment of rude people! There were adults jumping in their seats playing patty cake. There were people hanging out in the aisles ignoring the seat belt signs. There was a woman behind us with a toddler who was both a kicker & a loud babbler, PLUS the woman let the kid stand on the seat unbuckled for landing. Truly unbelievable. To add insult to injury the flight had to fight a headwind all the way, so it took about 40 minutes longer than usual. But finally we and our luggage all arrived, and my dad picked us up from the airport (he and Sue live in Kissimmee). On the way back to his house we stopped at the liquor store to stock up for the trip, and grabbed some dinner to go from Tijuana Flats (btw, very tasty and reasonably priced). After dinner we chatted for awhile and were all in bed by 11pm to get a good night\u2019s rest before tomorrow.<\/p>\n

October 17th, 2009<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, Sue, Jenn & I all woke up at 3am and couldn\u2019t get back to sleep, so we ended up drinking coffee on the lanai for the rest of the night. We are SO going to crash by the end of the day! We headed over to the port around 9:30am, and arrived to discover that the construction has changed the parking\/entry layout around a bit. If you are used to how it looked before, it\u2019s a bit confusing now, but it looks like it will be great when it\u2019s finished. We got onboard a little after noon, made some last minute reservations, grabbed some lunch in Parrot Cay, and then headed to our respective rooms. Jenn & Nick and Mark & Sue are all in cat 9 midship on deck 2. Dave & I are in a cat 5 (upgraded from a cat 7 GTY) on deck 7 just off the aft elevator lobby. If I forget to mention it later, you can smell whatever is being served at Topsiders as soon as you open the door from our room, which isn\u2019t a bad thing.<\/p>\n

At 3pm the ladies & I headed to the Promenade Lounge to have a cocktail with our Dismeet group, and stayed there until the lifeboat drill.
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\nMy conclusion on the lifeboat drill was that group N stood for either not-gonna-make-it or not-able-to-follow-directions. Almost all of them were late, and several had to be redirected to the right station multiple times. Thank heavens I was in P! After that I headed to my favorite spot on the ship, Cove Caf\u00e9, only to discover that they had removed the computers and I could no longer check my email there each morning \u2013 eek! At least the coffee is still good, and btw the dining room coffee has dramatically improved. Also as an fyi, if you have any smokers in your party, or if you are a die-hard non-smoker and want to avoid those areas, the current rule is that you can smoke starboard on decks 4, 9 & 10, except for the area near the Mickey Pool. Anyway, this was the first look I got at the Quiet Cove improvements since the last dry dock and it came out lovely. The new lounge chairs are much improved, and they have some loveseat seating next to Cove Caf\u00e9 that was quite nice as well.
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\n For some extra pixie dust, the Wonder had just returned from its own dry dock, and as the Magic left they had a Battle of the Horns that was amazing to witness. I\u2019m sure if you search you tube you can find it, since I saw a few people videotaping it.<\/p>\n

After that we all left to change for dinner \u2013 cruise casual for this evening, with the Lumiere\u2019s rotational menu. Our dining rotation is LAPPLAP and we have late seating, which is currently 8:15pm for everybody. We met outside the Walt Disney Theater for the All Aboard show at 6pm, except for my husband. In an effort to stave off seasickness, and because he thinks he\u2019s seen them enough times, Dave has decided to skip the main evening shows. Yes, he is a big fuddy duddy, but to be fair he had no trouble with motion this time and he usually does. The show included variety acts by John Charles (very entertaining) and Alfred & Seymour (ten minutes of my life I\u2019d like back). John Charles does musical comedy, where he makes up his own funny lyrics to well-known songs, and also does some great impersonations. Alfred & Seymour basically bounce around the stage and act generally obnoxious and\/or inept. Seriously, it was painful to watch. The rest of the show tells the story of a little boy who wants to be a ship captain when he grows up. It\u2019s cute, and used to tie-in well with the final show, which is a whole other story that I\u2019ll tell later. After All Aboard I went to Mickey Mania in Studio Sea, and was delighted to discover that they now have Moscato d\u2019asti on the menu, which is one of my preferred choices of white wine. Dinner was excellent \u2013 my husband took pictures of everything we ate at each meal, but to simplify I\u2019ll just say that the food across the board was better than I remember it being on previous sailings, with very few exceptions. The exceptions would be that they destroyed the mango & papaya soup recipe, and there is no more peanut butter pie at Animator\u2019s Palate. Our server was Toto, our assistant server was Joe, and our head server was Cedomir, all of whom did a great job. In any case, due to my ridiculously early wake-up I couldn\u2019t make it through dessert and missed the cr\u00e8me brulee, one of my all-time favorites. Off to bed, Zzzzzzz.
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October 18th, 2009<\/p>\n

Did I mention my love of Cove Caf\u00e9? Well, in light of that Jenn & I decided it would be easiest to meet up there each morning for coffee whenever we each woke up, so that\u2019s where my day started. I debated grabbing a bran muffin from the food case but we have brunch in Palo at 10:30 and I like to be hungry for that. I tried to request Thom for Palo, who we had on a previous sailing in regular dining, but he left the day before to go home to Czech, so we settled for his brother, Jakub (also very nice and a good server). By the time we finished brunch we were just docking in Key West \u2013 hooray! Unfortunately it\u2019s a bit overcast, and it\u2019s not particularly warm. BUT it\u2019s not raining and that\u2019s really all I\u2019m concerned about. My whole party, except for my husband, will be wandering Duval St for the day. Dave will be attempting to Snuba, which is a hybrid of snorkeling and scuba. It turned out that he really liked it, and that despite the cool weather the water temperature was still quite warm. He took a ton of pictures, since photography is his hobby and he bought a special underwater for the trip, which all came out great.
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\nWe wandered a bit before settling on a place we think was called Fat Tuesday, which has seven thousand varieties of frozen drinks. I tried the Suicide, which has basically a drop of each of them, and tastes like fruit punch. We moved on to Sloppy Joes for a bit, at which point Jenn & Nick left us to shop. My dad, Sue & I continued on Duval St, next visiting Irish Kevin\u2019s. Then it\u2019s all a bit hazy for awhile, but I ordered the house drink, which was green and came in a souvenir cup. Irish Kevin\u2019s is one of the coolest bars I\u2019ve ever visited, and if you\u2019re in the area, GO THERE. It\u2019s just fun. After Irish Kevin\u2019s I decided it was time to try the famous Key Lime Pie of Key West. My intent was to hit a place called the Blond Giraffe, but due to my slightly inebriated state I stopped at a different Key Lime Pie shop a couple doors down. I unfortunately lost the business card they gave me, but methinks it was the Key Lime Pie Outlet on Greene St. After tasting both I\u2019m going to go out and say that the KLPO was better than Blond Giraffe, and the KLPO whipped cream was dramatically better. We popped our heads in to the original Sloppy Jo\u2019s, but didn\u2019t linger. It\u2019s interesting, though \u2013 there is a tree growing in the middle of the bar. After that we visited a \u201clocals\u201d place called the Green Parrot (I think \u2013 again, it\u2019s all a bit hazy). Once we left Sue & I decided to shop and my dad decided to head back to the ship, and this is where it all went horribly awry. Sue needed to use the ladies room, so we stopped at a restaurant\/bar called Kathy\u2019s. While I waited for Sue I noticed that they offered $4 Key Lime Margaritas for a happy hour special, and lo & behold it was happy hour! We each had one \u2013 honestly, just the one \u2013 and when we stood up again we were shnockered. Totally tanked. Are those speed bumps in the sidewalk or is that just the way I walk?
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\nWe did make it back to the ship. We did not stop to shop. Fortunately we were skipping the agony of Alfred & Seymour, so we had plenty of time before dinner. I hit Who Wants To Be A Mousketeer, which I really liked, and then enjoyed Animator\u2019s Palate, except for the absence of my peanut butter pie.<\/p>\n

October 19th, 2009<\/p>\n

The Golden Mickeys are tonight! Hooray for our first glorious day at sea! Now my secret comes out. I LOVE shipboard activities! Pack my schedule full from sunup to sundown! Today\u2019s schedule lent itself well to this. I started off with my usual morning coffee from Cove Caf\u00e9 (seriously, I wasn\u2019t kidding, I go there every morning) followed by a 9:45am character breakfast in Parrot Cay.
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\nThey have reverted back to the format where the characters all visit the tables and pose for photos. Great news for those who hated the alternative you-can-come-to-us style of meet & greet, and I agree that it\u2019s much nicer this way. For breakfast I had a cheese omelet, hash brown & bagel. I remember it distinctly because it was the only decent breakfast I had on the ship \u2013 stick with the omelets and you\u2019ll all be fine! Do NOT branch out into the pancakes or French toast! After breakfast I had scheduled one of my absolute favorite spa treatments: the frangipani scalp massage. It\u2019s like the world\u2019s best salon shampooing, only 100x times better. They massage frangipani oil into your scalp and down through to the ends of your hair, then massage a muscle ease potion into your shoulders, all for less than $30 (plus tip). It\u2019s amazing, and I highly recommend it to everybody. After that I decided to check out one of DCL\u2019s new programs, \u201cDisney\u2019s Innovations: Animation\u201d and my conclusion was that it had potential but was generally boring. They list off the top ten contributions made by Disney in whatever the specified field is, in this case animation, which sounds cool but ends up being a little too \u201cedu\u201d and not enough \u201ctaining\u201d.<\/p>\n

By now I just had time for a quick slice of pizza (better than I remembered) before my 3pm martini tasting. The martini tasting was no longer done by Svetlana, my personal favorite, and was now done by Prince. He did a good job but with every martini it became more difficult to decipher his accent. Sorry Prince lovers, but I miss Svetlana! My group lingered in Sessions after the tasting, so I missed Cruisin for Trivia, which turned out to be good since I caught a few minutes of another CfT session later and didn\u2019t know the answer to anything. By this time there was just long enough to get dressed and make an appearance at the Captain\u2019s Reception, for the free watered-down cocktails. \uf04a The first drink I tried was called an apple martini, but was essentially green water. Lest anyone think I was being picky, I had three different people try it and they all agreed. The pink fruity drink was much better, but I had to hunt down a server to get one since I was on deck 4 just past one of the photo spots and they were ignoring me entirely. The side by the DVC\/future cruise desks on deck 4 got service, just not the opposite side. Then we all met up for the Golden Mickeys, which are still excellent. I got a little misty at the end when I realized I would never see them again, since they\u2019ll be replaced by the time of my EBTA in April 2010. Dinner was the Golden Mickey\u2019s menu in Parrot Cay. After dinner we popped in to see Midtown play in the Promenade Lounge. My father was completely enamored with them \u2013 just loved Sharon\u2019s (the lead singer) voice, so I had to stop and see what all the fuss what about. And she did have a truly lovely voice, and wonderful stage presence. Between engaging the kids on the dance floor, and interacting with the passersby, you could tell that this was a couple who genuinely enjoyed performing. <\/p>\n

Nighty night, or so I thought. But when I got back to my room and checked to confirm the meeting time for my shore excursion the next morning it was totally different than when I had booked. I booked and printed the confirmation for Atlantis Submarine, meeting at 7:45am, and the tickets said 9:45am. Since this would be two hours difference in sleep, I called the shore excursions desk to clarify, but they had left and wouldn\u2019t return till 7:30am, which was totally unhelpful. Guest services said they were pretty sure we should go by the ticket times, but not wanting to risk it I\u2019ll be up early to check.<\/p>\n

October 20th, 2009<\/p>\n

Rise & shine! By 7am I was at guest services (still no shore excursion desk) and I got a slightly more helpful CM who explained that they had adjusted the times in port a few months back, and as a result had moved a bunch of shore excursions to later times, probably including mine. Sorry for the lack of notification, yadda yadda. Well, I\u2019m up now, and need to meet Sue & Jenn to tell them they could have slept longer, but they are early risers and were probably up anyway. We ladies meet in Rockin Bar D and decide to wait for the menfolk, who are doing the Grand Cayman Island Tour and also meeting in Rockin Bar D at 8:15am.
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\nWe send them on their way, hang out on deck 9 for awhile with some coffee, and then go back to Rockin Bar D at 9:30 to meet for our excursion. Not the most pleasant start to a day, but we rolled with it. At 10am they told us that due to the rain our tender was delayed, and we didn\u2019t actually leave till 10:30am. By now I\u2019m fidgety \u2013 I don\u2019t do all that well with long periods of time where I do nothing, especially when I feel like there is fun to be had elsewhere. As we board the tender they hand us each free ponchos, which we immediately put on since it\u2019s still raining, but lightly. We make it to shore and walk all of three feet to the right to the Atlantis Sub shop. From there we take another small boat to meet the sub, and once we\u2019re underwater the rain will have no meaning for us. I\u2019ve been on the semi-subs before, but this was way cooler. We didn\u2019t see a lot in the way of marine life, but that\u2019s really luck of the draw. Sometimes you get lucky and spot a turtle or something, sometimes you don\u2019t, but the coral and fish we did see were amazing, and we went down to 104 feet. Oddly the sub is roomier than the semi-sub, so no one had trouble with claustrophobia.<\/p>\n

By the time we got off we were hungry, and in an effort to try something sort of local we went to Breezes, which was excellent, if slightly pricey. We each a drink called \u201cArghh\u201d and some conch fritters, then our respective meals. Very nice place and I\u2019d recommend it. Underneath that same building was a pirate shop, where we found a pirate bandana that would work on my dad\u2019s head (it was stretchy in the back) and the cheapest liquor I found anywhere. None of my personal favorites, but a fairly good selection. Since we were back to the ship fairly early I decided to do what I usually do with free time and checked out the spa. Lucky for me, because they were offering the Cruise Choice (25 minute back massage, 25 minute mini-facial, foot & ankle massage and Indian head massage) for a port day special of only $109! Jenn wanted to cash in on the special too, and when I went to book it for both of us they offered us use of a vacant villa for two at no additional charge \u2013 sweet! We finished all of our pampering in time to see Twice Charmed, which I always love and loved even more on this sailing. IMO this was the best overall cast I\u2019ve seen on any of my sailings, and the prince was far and away the best I\u2019d seen in that role. I had to run to dress for dinner in Parrot Cay (rotational menu), and then arrived a few questions in to Think You Know Your Disney Tunes. The answer was no in most cases, and there was this insanely obnoxious girl there trying to turn it into her own personal show, so I stayed through the final question and left before the answers were given. Off to bed \u2013 tomorrow is Cozumel!<\/p>\n

October 21st, 2009<\/p>\n

Ah, Mexico! My only visit to Mexico previously was Cancun in my younger years, and I had a fantastic time, so I have high hopes for Cozumel. And I was right to do so \u2013 Cozumel is like a shinier, prettier, less pushy version of Cancun. The gents are doing the Ruins Tour & Beach Break, which takes them to San Gervasio and Playa Mia. I wasn\u2019t there, but they really enjoyed it. In fact, Cozumel turned out to be everybody\u2019s favorite port.
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\nThe ladies and I had arranged to do a tequila seminar at Mr Sancho\u2019s, independently from DCL since they didn\u2019t offer it. To get there we needed a taxi, which I\u2019d been told costs $12-$16 each way (accurately). The taxi going there had a broken speedometer, but it was going fast. Very fast. Our driver, Fernando, was native to Cozumel and told us lots of fun things about the island as we rocketed to Mr Sancho\u2019s. When we arrived at Mr Sancho\u2019s I asked for Oliver (the manager who I arranged everything through) and he immediately brought me around to the restaurant. Tables were already setup with a margarita for each of us next to a beautiful display of many bottles of tequila and an actual blue agave plant, which looks kind of like a large aloe plant. A bit of trivia about me is that liquor is sort of my hobby \u2013 I\u2019m fascinated with how they make it, where is comes from, what makes it good or bad, etc. That said, this was probably my tenth tequila seminar, give or take, but it was by far the best. Jenn & Sue, who have no real interest beyond how it tastes, were absolutely riveted by Oliver\u2019s descriptions, his presentation on the making and history of tequila, the types, etc. Surprisingly he spoke English perfectly, with just enough accent that you knew it was his second language. We tried two blanco tequilas, two reposados, one anejo, and then were fed a delightful lunch of chips with guacamole, nachos with bean & cheese, beef burritos for the meat eaters, fish tacos for me. After lunch we tried two dessert tequilas, and had the option to purchase any of the kinds we liked. Unfortunately for Sue & Jenn their favorite was $100 a bottle for one of the reposados, but mine was a neat $35 for Cr\u00e8me de tequila. I wish I could remember what the other dessert tequila was called, since it was also excellent, but all I remember is the pretty bottle.<\/p>\n

After the seminar was over we lingered a bit over mango margaritas, which had a cayenne pepper rim (a surprisingly nice combo if you can tolerate cayenne pepper). By this time Sue & I were mellow, and Jenn was a bit tanked. Fortunately we had worked out a who-was-in-charge-of-who plan that morning to make sure everybody stayed safe, so Sue got to keep an eye of Jenn. The day had called for rain so we hadn\u2019t planned to stay for the all-inclusive beach package, but it cleared up by the time we were ready to leave. They had a bunch of small shops, only one of which had an overly pushy salesman, and I picked up a couple necklace\/earring combos for people back home watching my pets. Another taxi to take us back to the original shopping area next to the ship, this one having a working speedometer that indicated over 100, and after a little browsing we got back on the ship. We spent some time lounging up on deck 9 in the adult area, where we ultimately met up with everybody else. We then had our Pirates in the Caribbean dinner at Lumiere\u2019s, followed by the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party, followed by bedtime.<\/p>\n

October 22nd, 2009<\/p>\n

Another glorious day at sea \u2013 I love sailing around in the Caribbean! I decided to start the day with breakfast at Lumiere\u2019s, which was less than great. I got some combo that gave me one pancake, one waffle, and one piece of French toast, none of which were edible. And for some odd reason we ended up with five thousand pieces of bacon. Whatever \u2013 it\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to starve. I checked my email, and then it\u2019s off the Walt Disney Theater Q&A, which I arrived late to due to an unexpected reroute at Shutters. Sorry to everyone for my late arrival \u2013 I hate when people do that! It was interesting, and we got to meet a couple behind the scenes people as well as Ensign Benson from the Golden Mickeys. I passed along my complements to the excellent Prince Charming, and then headed off the Bingo. I lost, which is typical for any time I play bingo. I did a bit of shopping, and then stopped in for the Q&A portion of the Making of the Magic, in the hopes that they would leak some Disney Dream info (they didn\u2019t). I grabbed some lunch in an effort to make up for my inedible breakfast (truly the worst meal I had all week) before checking out the Galley Tour. Yes they gave us chocolate chip cookies, but no they weren\u2019t warm anymore. The tour was impressive, though, and the kitchens are immaculate.<\/p>\n

At 4pm we were scheduled for a shipboard tequila & margarita tasting, which paled so dramatically in comparison to the one at Mr Sancho\u2019s that it wasn\u2019t really enjoyable. It\u2019s just very hard to go from a seminar that teaches you how to sip tequila properly for maximum enjoyment, to a seminar that does shots with salt and lime. Before the class started, though, both my dad & I complained to Rodolpho (the tequila seminar host) about the time offered for the cognac tasting. See, we had both wanted to do it, but it was only scheduled for 9:30 at night, making it impossible for anyone with late seating to attend. Rodolpho totally agreed with us about the timing, and offered to host a private class for us instead at a time of our choosing. I love unexpected pixie dust! We arranged with him to have a private cognac tasting at 10:15 in Cove Caf\u00e9 the following night. And right about this time Sue started coughing, signaling the start of her bout of flu. From the tequila tasting we went to the Promenade Lounge to enjoy some more of Midtown, then on to Disney Dreams (loved it, as always). Jenn, Nick, Dave & I were scheduled for dinner at Palo that night, so we got dressed and headed on up.
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\nI got there a bit early and decided to answer a question I\u2019d been pondering for many moons \u2013 is there actually a bar in Palo? The answer is yes, and they have an excellent selection of dessert-like martinis. Once all of us were there our server, Jakub, brought us to our table, and our drinks followed shortly after. Dinner was excellent as Palo always is, and afterward Jenn & I left the men to visit Diversions in an effort to stay awake long enough to check out the Lumiere\u2019s dessert buffet. While I was there I told Rodolpho that there was a slight change to our party of cognac tasters. Since Sue was deathly sick, and Jenn had started to come down with the same thing, neither of them would be attended. To my great surprise and pleasure, my husband had offered to step in and join us (totally out of character for him). We did make the dessert buffet, but we were still too full to really do it justice. Pictures were taken, then off to dreamland!<\/p>\n

October 23rd, 2009<\/p>\n

Our last day on the Magic! Sue did not make it up on deck at all \u2013 she was horribly sick in her stateroom. I put together a plate of food for her from Topsiders in case she got hungry later, and then headed off to Castaway Cay. What can you say about Castaway Cay? It\u2019s beautiful, relaxing, picture-perfect, and all the other adjectives you can come up with. I had canceled my cabana massage in favor of the cruise choice spa package a couple of days ago, so it was strictly a beach day for me at Serenity Bay. There was a brief passing shower, at which point I decided to visit the shops to try to replace my lost sarong (no luck) and by the time I got to the shops clouds were rolling in and I decided to just head back to the ship. Jenn & I went up to the Quiet Cove pool, and while we were there noticed a familiar face slipping into the hot tub. Lo & behold it was Prince Charming! Turns out his name was Patrick, he was told about my compliments from the Q&A, and was more than happy to chat a bit about working on the Magic. He was with Emma (one of the dancers), who was also very nice. We chatted for twenty minutes or so, and then Jenn & I decided to get ready for the show and dinner.<\/p>\n

The Remember the Magic show was terrible. It was bad enough that I didn\u2019t stay for the whole thing \u2013 an unprecedented event! Since I last sailed someone apparently decided that they should intersperse a couple of Broadway level acts with the variety acts. Why on earth would you want to be introduced to a variety act that you had no opportunity to see if you liked it? I made it through the boring juggler before I gave up and left. The second variety act was a ventriloquist who I heard later was fairly good, but I stand by the opinion that variety acts have no place in the final show. What ever happened to the cute finale where the little boy becomes the captain, and they do a photo montage taken throughout the ship during the week? So much more fitting and enjoyable! Anyway, we followed that up with a little Midtown in the Promenade Lounger before our final dinner at Parrot Cay. And then off to our last hurrah \u2013 the private cognac tasting. I rushed up to the Cove Caf\u00e9 for 10:15 to give the gents a couple of minutes to throw on shorts, and found a beautiful display of cognac bottles, and a setup of snifters and chocolates. The seminar was excellent, and it turned out that my husband is a fan of the higher end cognacs. By the time it was over we were all exhausted, and ready for our last sleep onboard the Magic.<\/p>\n

October 24th, 2009<\/p>\n

Rise & shine, and get the heck off our ship! After breakfast in Parrot Cay we all headed to the gangplank, me with three bottles of liquor in my backpack, which by the way, weighs a TON! We got off the ship and were held up by the escalators before the luggage area, probably for about five minutes, which seemed longer due to the enormous weight on my back. We were among the later groups disembarking, so our luggage was easy to find, and we made it back to the van with no trouble. Off to my dad\u2019s for a bit before our traditional post-cruise lunch at Beef O\u2019Brady\u2019s. And that\u2019s the story of our Western Caribbean cruise!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello fellow and future travelers! Below you will find my trip report \u2013 it is lengthy and detailed, so if you just want an overview you\u2019ll want to skip this report entirely. The players are: myself (April), DH (Dave), my dad (Mark), his girlfriend (Sue), and our friends Jenn & Nick. Our sailing began Saturday,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[29,10,37,41,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}