December 27th, 2019 Part 1
I woke up just after 6:30am and checked to see if we were docked yet. I peeked out the curtains and noticed that we were not docked yet!
I turned the TV on and saw that we weren't even in the channel yet, I knew what that meant
Stepped out onto the verandah and saw this...
I jumped in the shower and got ready and checked out the view again...no closer to the port
My kiddo was sleeping through all of this
Rob showered and we all got ready for the day. As we were packing up all of our toiletries and such, the captain busted into our cabin...not literally, though, just his voice
He told us that the channel and port were closed to all traffic due to severe weather conditions. He said that parts of Texas were under a tornado watch and there was lightning and wind watches/warnings in the area and we had to wait for it to clear before they would let us enter the channel.
He said that we were close enough to receive cell service and that if anyone needed help changing their flights or arranging different transportation they could stop at Guest Services. He said he didn't know exactly how long the delay would be but we could stay in our rooms until further notice and no need to bring your carry-ons to breakfast. He said he would have another update for us in 45-60 minutes.
Wow!
This was a first for us! We've been on the nasty end of this delay, if you remember back to my Christmas 2016 cruise trip report, when we didn't get to board the ship until 4pm due to fog in the channel and it wasn't pretty
Thankfully, I know better and never book an early flight home so we had nothing to worry about! We were just heading over to the San Luis Resort for a few days so this totally worked out for us!
This was probably the first time that I was able to enjoy a breakfast on our disembarkation day, actually
Normally I am too worried about feeling ill when disembarking and travelling somewhere but I knew we would be here for at least a couple of hours and we didn't have far to travel so off to Tiana's we went
I finally got some nice, fresh, over easy eggs
And burnt toast
Rob got his cream of wheat...
And pancakes!
Not sure what Kira had since I don't seem to have a photo
I think she had the same as me which makes sense as to why I am lacking a photo
We said one final good-bye to Wayan and Chani and then headed back to our room.
We could see TONS of ships around us although I didn't get a good picture.
I enjoyed every second of extra verandah time I got
According to the
DCL Blog, we circled around for quite a bit that morning.
Then the captain made another announcement so I ran back in the room to listen...
He said that it looked like it was clearing up soon and that we
should be on our way very shortly. He said once we were cleared, we would have to wait for a pilot to come on board and because of the sea conditions, that is a hazardous undertaking and we could be delayed even further.
Once that the pilot was on board safely, he said it would be about 90 minutes to sail into the channel and get docked. Once that happened and we cleared customs, then we would start the disembarkation process.
Shortly thereafter, the weather did improve a little and the pilot made it on board! He wasn't joking about it being dangerous. This is a video from a fellow passenger who caught the action...thanks Brandice
Our cruise director came on the speaker and told us they would be reopening the Club and Vibe (not Edge, sadly) for parents to come and enjoy those spaces with their kids and they were playing a couple of movies, Mary Poppins in the Walt Disney Theatre and Ralph Breaks the Internet in the Buena Vista Theatre. Rob and Kira went to see Ralph while I enjoyed every second of my balcony time.
As we were sailing past Seawolf Park, Rob and Kira popped back in because they thought we would be disembarking soon. I told them that we had at least an hour or more to go so they went back to finish their movie.
I enjoyed watching us sail back into the channel, not often this happens in daylight.
The tugs were getting into their positions for us...
Then we did our big turn around in the turn basin...
This was a dolphin boat tour, I could hear what the captain was saying. They got lucky, tons of dolphins in the water that morning
As we were slowly backing in, a bunch of idiots, both in the front and aft parts of the ship were feeding the seagulls so they were flocking together, fighting each other for the food.
This went on for about 30 minutes and they came close to me thinking I was going to feed them too.
I was chatting with Nancy the whole way in. She was watching us sail in on the webcam. She sent me this pic and then I edited it a bit and sent it back to her
That's me in the blue circle
Everyone at the port was anxiously waiting for us
All the supplies waiting for the next group of passengers...
Some new beds...I hope they had covers on them because it was raining out
There's the trucks waiting for us to drop off all of the supplies. Kind of neat that I got to watch them do this for our sailing and for the next sailing.
I watched them unload luggage, some of which almost went into the water
I watched the gorgeous K-9 dog sniff all of the supplies...
Then Kira and Rob came back and they were hungry so I told them that I bet the deck 9 places were open since it was now just after noon.
They left and both came back with food! Kira got Pete's and watched her TV.
Rob said that Cabanas was also open, albeit, there were no tables to sit at so he brought it back to the room with him and enjoyed a very special lunch on our verandah. Not often that happens
We waited and listened to all of the luggage tag characters being called. We were Blue Donald.
We heard them call Ariel, Chip & Dale, Daisy, Minnie, Tink & Mickey....no Donald. We were okay though, we were in no hurry and I knew lots of people were in a hurry so I'd rather let them get off first.
Shortly after 1pm, they called Goofy and then announced "All luggage tags have been called now!"
WHAT?
We were listening and they did NOT call Donald! We waited a few more minutes and they clarified that Donald can now disembark.
Okay, fine! Guess we should go now...
My sad little crew leaving our room...
We got down to deck 3 and there was a massive line to get off still so we sat down in Promenade Lounge for awhile and let it clear up a bit. Kira was anxious to go (she wanted Wi-fi
) so although I would have preferred to wait until the line cleared completely, I didn't want to listen to her complaining anymore so we joined the herd
We are about to leave our ship.
(Image limit
)