Day 13: Last Day at Sea
"Now it's time to say good-bye to all our company...."
Today was a sad, sad day, because we knew what was coming. We really had a fun time, and although all those sea days sound like alot to some people, it really was a great time. The days kind of flowed into each other, but they really really went by fast! I really loved the sea days, so I was not looking forward to the last one....
Today is entitled....
To DVC or not to DVC, that IS the question.
We wanted to get an early start today (which with all of the time changes meant 10:00 am)
We wanted to try and rekindle our Disney luck by going to the last DVC presentation (I had always been wanting to go hear about it anyway) and see if we could win the $300 ship credit!
Did we win?? Yeah right, I could not win a Ducky sketch, I should have known not to even hope for this one.
I saw alot of veteran DVC'ers there. It was a good presentation, and to my surprise my DH signed us up for a slot to talk more about it with the DVC rep. Afterwards, we talked to 2 nice ladies who told us about their DVC experience, and answered our questions, were really helpful.
Then we went up to lunch, to discuss our new interest and happened to meet up with Scott and Lynn, and Debbie and her mom. We had a great lunch together talking DVC. DH took DS to the club during our lunch, and we ended up really wanting to buy into it. They were offering a great onboard offer, and we would love to take advantage of that. We figured we went to Disney all the time anyway....The problem was, our time slot to talk to the rep was at 9:30. (You will see the problem a little later)
We also decided to try our luck at the final jackpot bingo. This was our first cruise, and our first time playing any game of bingo. I fugured there has to be a first for everything.....This, I found out, ended up being a huge waste of time and money (just our opinion). Sure, it was fun, and we only bought one pack of cards for $35.00, but I found out that it really was not for us. We are not gambling types, so we ended up calling it a wash.
After the bingo game, it was time for the kids clubs graduation ceremony. This was one of the signs that let me know we had come to the end.
We knew that DS probably would not like doing this, so we tried to pick him up in time, but they had already headed down to the stage. We talked him into staying for it, since we were already there, by letting him wear his sunglasses on stage
. The counselors were ok with it, so he decided to give it a go. The ceremony was good, as usual, and sad at the same time, and DS was glad to be out of there. So many kids are up on the stage, that most of them are herded to the back to make room for everyone so we never even saw him during the show. That is probably something else that we may not do again, depending on if he wanted to or not.
Dinner was at Parrot Cay tonight. They were going to celebrate Chase's birthday tonight, which was really nice since his birthday was not until the end of June! LOL
Unfortunately, dinner again was running rather slow, we usually told them when we needed to head out by a certain time, but for some reason, we were still running behind. so DH stayed behind and grabbed our desserts to go. I had a mission. I had seats to grab for Disney Dreams tonight. I had been dreading this night and moment for the last few nights. I could see fists flying, riots breaking out, angry people.
But, this was a show that we could not remember if Chase had seen it or not, and we wanted to make sure he could really see it. We were able to grab seats in the front for the 2 of us, alot of times, that was all we could get, and Chase sat on one of our laps. It really was not bad at all, there were no riots.
The show was great, and they really added some cool effects to it! I sure noticed, and my eyesight isn't great---one of the other reasons why I like sitting in the front.
As soon as the show was over, we had to immediately hurry through all of the crowds and get to the DVC desk. They ushered us to an office upstairs on deck 10 and we visited with the rep for a bit. When we finally got the numbers of what would suit our family, as good as the deal was, we could not afford it at this time. We want to do it in the future, and learned so much from all of the great people that we talked to. But, timing was just not on our side, and we had some bills that were going to be due (as well as paying for the rest of the trip we were on) that made things an impossibility.
The reason why it was a mistake to go to the DVC presentation, was that they had THE special fireworks planned for arriving in Barcelona at 10:20pm. They had made the announcement that we had arrived a little earlier in the evening, but would not be DOCKING until the following morning. We found out this was because of the enormous docking fees that Disney has to pay.
So, by the time we got out of the meeting, we could not get spots by the rail, and it was really really crowded up on deck 10.
DRATS!!!! our verandah was on the opposite side of the ship!!!! GRRRRR!
We were able to have our DS kneel up on one of those counter things, and we think he was able to see really well. I filmed it, but I honestly don't know how it came out since so many heads blocked the view of the dock, which were where alot of the fireworks were too. I am still kicking myself I did not get there earlier to secure a better filming spot. Hindsight is always 20/20 right??
I don't know why, but when they announced about the fireworks, I was thinking it would be like the Pirate night fireworks....good, but not elaborate like the parks. Boy, what a bad assumption on my part----ere the bad spots to see them, I underestimated what they would do for us. They were wonderful! With the music, and the celebration, it was a highlight of the trip for me. After walking down from deck 10, and going past the live music at the Goofy pool on deck 9 (on my way to get my last cup of ice cream, no doubt, the band was singing a traditional Spanish song, I am sure it was their national anthem, "Viva la Spania (sp)!!"
I got my camera out to film it, because how many times has he Magic been to Spain, or Europe for that matter??? And just as they were ending the song, the horn blew.....awesome. Once in a lifetime, I will never forget that, and at least that I caught a great moment on film to keep forever.
Just a great moment to end a great cruise. I was really starting to feel it then.
They were showing the world premiere of Pirates in the Caribbean tonight!! YAY!
Unfortunately, we had an early excursion tomorrow....Booo!
DH did not care though, and went to get spot to see it. Since I had DS, and he did not want to go back to the club, I decided I would watch it with DH again the next day. They were showing it nonstop all the next day (Barcelona port day) too. If the kids would have ended up in the lab, DS would have gone, but he did not like the club anymore for some reason. So we stayed in the room, and I watched Dreamgirls, and tried to catch the kids on messenger, but for some reason, Messenger was blocked and stayed blocked the rest of the time. I do not know if hey caught on to the fact that we (all of us cruisers) were communicating through it (some even watching video through it---maybe too much bandwidth??), or there was just a problem once we reached the Barcelona area, but it all of a sudden stopped working....nada....nothing. Internet was fine, but messenger was out of commission.
We fell asleep before DH got back (ashamedly, not by too much though!). We had an early day tomorrow, and wanted to fully take advantage of our last day onboard. I was truly getting depressed by this time, grasping at everything I could take a picture of, or video of. LOL
So all in all, even though DVC ended up not working out, we still enjoyed learning more about it from the true pros. I never knew people could have so many points....I was envious and awestruck!
And even though Bingo was a bust, we still had a good time, and now know what its like, and won't need to have to do it again.....or will we??
Stay tuned:
Barcelona! We had the Gaudi tour scheduled, and thankfully, was a half day excursion.
Pirates of the Caribbean --At World's End
Saying goodbye
Packing in the NICK of time....talk about a close one!
I think that I had been with other disers on every single excursion we took, so it was nice getting to know people while on them.
It was our only excursion without him, and we tried to plan ones that he could go on so we would not be leaving him at all of the ports. But there is only so much a 4 year old will be entertained with in Europe instead of beachy ports.
This day was actually ok, albeit a little windy, and thank goodness there was another little boy in the pool about his age. Other than that, NO ONE, and I don't know how long he would stay in the pool all by himself.
