April 2023 – Mkingdon's Blog

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Fourteen Sunday 22nd January

30/04/2023 by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Sunday 22nd January

To be nothing if not consistent I was awake by 7am. This Disney-imposed alarm clock to book stuff was training my body nicely.

Louise had not slept at all and was not feeling fit to be up and out in a theme park anytime soon. Emily and I got ready and left her to recover some sleep and kitted out with Genie+ and a LL reservation for Splash Mountain at 1.05 on its final day, we set off.

We arrived and parked up in Simba 116 by 9am and used the car locator thing in the app as we had for most of the trip. A handy tool for tools who can’t remember where they parked.

The park looked busy but we saw that Big Thunder was only showing a 25-minute wait. Despite not believing that at all, we headed there anyway. Once we got close to Frontierland it quickly became clear what sort of day this would be in this neck of the park.

We fought our way through that and round to somewhere close to the entrance to Big Thunder and its 25-minute wait. Yeah….

Amazingly, we were on the ride in about half an hour.

Having obeyed the rule that a ride must be ridden upon entering the park before eating is allowed, we now sought out some food. Again, options were very limited and we ended up back at Sleepy Hollow.

I mobile ordered and we loitered in the vicinity. Having done that for a bit I looked at the app and realised I hadn’t clicked the “I’m Here” button, so I did that now like the idiot I am. After another ten-minute wait, our food was ready and then there was a ten-minute wait at the pick-up window. Emily had pounced on a table as one became free and I joined her now with the food.

As I got there there was a kerfuffle going on at the next table. Once it had all calmed down Emily filled me in. It seems that some weird lady, bedecked in her Disney nutcase outfit had walked into the seating area and declared loudly that due to medical conditions, she had to sit down so who could she join. Some helpful, and now regretful family had obliged. As she sat there an ECV user at the next table had reversed somewhere close to her and this lady had then kicked off as if someone had firebombed her house.

She was yelling at the whole party about irresponsible ECV users and how she could have been killed etc. I caught the tale end of the row and she was just bloody nasty and horrible. She stormed off much to the relief of the poor family who had accommodated her and the young girl in the ECV was inconsolable. Some people are just horrible.

We started to eat as all this played out and therefore, alas, the camera was too late.

I had made a LL for Buzz despite the distractions going on around me and we headed there now. My tactic for today was to simply book whichever Genie+ LL was available soonest and see how that went. It was BUSY today.

The LL queue for Buzz was not short but we were soon on.

In front of us were a couple of young parents with four kids. It looked like they were under attack, with kids hanging around necks, being dragged along the floor and screaming and crying. I felt sorry for them and grateful it wasn’t me in equal measure.

I managed to secure my highest-ever score but have no idea how.

Emily could not compete on this occasion.

As we exited I booked a LL for Ariel and walked in that direction. We browsed a shop or two until our slot rolled around.

Once our slot opened we were on within minutes. I am far too mature to be making any jokes about Ariel’s slot opening up…..that would just be in poor taste.

The 12 o’clock parade had started minutes ago over in Frontierland so we walked down through the castle, to catch it around the hub…

You can see from the blur how fast we were travelling as I took that photo. With just Emily and I, we were in full-on theme park commando mode.

Whoosh…

We grabbed a spot up the side of the castle on one of the ramps.

As we waited for the parade to arrive we watched with amusement the endless number of Instagrammers posing for photos in front of the castle. Typically a young, pretty girl getting their less attractive friends to capture their “natural” poses in front of the castle.

The view from here is great, especially if your camera has a decent zoom.

Ariel appreciates a good fork…..

Peter was just showing off….

I didn’t know Harry Styles was a cast member….

As Mickey and Minnie passed us we escaped back up through the castle and headed for the LL I had booked for It’s A Small World. On the way, Louise messaged to say that she had just arrived on the bus and would be with us shortly.

After some recent social media hoohah about the boats on this ride we noted they were all scrubbed and shiny.

After meeting Louise, with perfect timing we headed for our LL for Splash and one last ride. The LL queue took about 30 minutes and it will not shock you to learn that we were all very thoughtful and a little upset about my Dad, with whom we had ridden this thing countless times. It being this ride’s last day, for some reason, brought back many memories and feelings.

The standby queue was horrific.

I went live on Facebook to share our last journey on this, Splash’s last day. Luckily we secured the front row for a clear view.

Emily cried all the way around and it took some effort not to join her.

Lunch now and we used the “what is closest” rule to select our eatery, and we entered Pecos Bill, which was a surprise to him.

Emily had previously enjoyed the best Impossible burger ever here on a previous trip so of course Disney had removed it from the menu now. She had to settle for just Chips and dip whilst Louise and I had nachos.

After enjoying those we walked down to Philharmagic which had no wait time posted.

After the show ended, it was coming up 3pm and time for the parade….again. We returned to the same spot as earlier, this time with Louise in tow.

More influencer gold was happening.

What do you mean you’ve had enough parade photos already???

Ariel sees me in the crowd and hopes I am single….

But then spots my wedding ring and her hopes are dashed….or maybe it was all just an act…

Alright love, don’t over do it.

Amidst all the influencer nonsense, one little chap there deserved to have his photo taken as much as he liked….

Again, once the last float had floated by, we escaped through the castle.

As it had just re-opened, we, well I, decided we would ride the train. We went to the station near The Barnstomeer but restrooms were required by weaker members of the group so I had a wander into the Big Top shop thing. It is a shadow of its former self and half-empty. This used to be a great place to see and buy a large range of merch.

The queue for the train was long and we had to wait for the second one before we could get on.

We did a full loop of the park plus one stop, getting off at Main Street.

We took a minute and watched the flag lowering ceremony.

Whilst enjoying these.

Our next LL was for Haunted Mansion at 6.20 so that was our next destination. One the way, to kill a little time until our slot rolled around we rode the Steamboat for the first time in about 20 years.

For anyone interested, I dug out the video of some of that 2001 ride.

Onto Haunted Mansion and a ten-minute wait for our LL booking.

There are a lot of contenders for “worst photo Craig ever took” but this will be top 5.

Maybe 6 now…

OK, 7….

Louise didn’t fancy Space Mountain so Emily and I went on whilst Louise wandered down to Main Street. It gets rougher every time, which seems to correspond with me getting older every time I ride.

We walked down to meet Louise on Main Street to say our goodbyes for this trip. We never know when we’ll be back….

Fighting back a few more tears we made our way out. It was a quiet walk to the resort monorail to start our journey over to O’hana.

Emily had stopped crying by the time we got there.

We checked in and were seated after a few minutes. We didn’t get a great table but food was imminent so that was all that mattered.

The food was certainly plentiful….

We ate far too much of it and at one point the fireworks happened at Magic Kingdom and the music was piped in. Our table location made it hard to appreciate that.

Mainly as Louise ordered a bottle of wine at a silly price, the bill was $320. Far too much for a meal for three people, and despite the volume of food I wouldn’t say we were blown away by it.

We paid, left and took the long way around the monorail all the way back to the TTC. A tram was waiting for us which was considerate and we found the car and undertook the sad drive back to the resort for the final time.

Louise and Emily went straight to the room leaving me to get some water from the shop. I got to the room to find them in the corridor as their magic bands wouldn’t open the door!

Packing would be left until the morning as bed was badly needed.

Till the next time……

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Thirteen Saturday 21st January

23/04/2023 by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Saturday 21st January

So we are back at WDW and the cruise is done. Not that my opinion matters but I realised I didn’t summarise our thoughts on our first cruise experience, so here goes.

It was very good.

Now, shall we move on? Oh, OK, some detail….

Well, many folks predicted we would fall in love with it and never want to do any other type of holiday again, and to be honest, we didn’t. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and there were some highlights and things we will never forget, but it did not grab us by the short and curlies.

The ship’s sheer size, scale and impressive nature were mind-blowing. It oozes quality and is relatively new, so everything is in pristine condition. The cast members were awesome and could not do enough for us and Cataway Cay was everything we hoped it would be. A real paradise destination. The entertainment was first class and our evenings in the piano bar were just lovely. We felt privileged to have been able to experience it all.

The bits that weren’t for us…

Sharing a table for all our evening meals. I know we sound anti-social and miserable, but that’s probably because we can be. I have to make small talk with people I don’t know or in some cases, really like at work all year so having to do so on holiday felt like hard work at times. Our table sharers were lovely of course and we had no problem with them at all, but the food on our holidays is very important to us and being able to relax in our own company and enjoy it is a big part of our trips.
Queues for food. We expected it and this had been a big reason we hadn’t cruised before. It wasn’t too bad at all, but it felt a bit “holiday camp” at breakfast and I am too weak and unfit to be fighting for my food.
The food. Honestly, everything we ate was lovely. However, the selection was limited and a bit repetitive over the course of the cruise. You know how much we base our trips around food, so a small menu of basically meat, chicken or a veggie option every night wasn’t perfect for us.

Now, of course, having done one, the next time would be much better as we would have some clue about what we were doing. Would we ever do so? I probably would as having just moaned about it above, I really do miss elements of it and would like to try it again. Louise is less keen and is very Disney’d out after a lot of recent trips so if we do a cruise again it would likely not be a Disney one. Although that worries me as all the other ships we saw looked like second-hand rust buckets compared to The Wish!

I am really glad we did it and feel lucky to have been able to, and if the chance presents itself I would definitely say try it.

Now, where were we?

Ah yes, in bed, having a lie in after a long tiring day yesterday. The plan said today was to be a day by Stormalong Bay, alas the weather prevented that being an option as it was bloody chilly. So we would need a plan B. Whilst Louise stayed in bed, Emily and I went down to the Marketplace and got a couple of breakfast sandwiches and a coffee each and had those in the seating area in the shop. We took breakfast back to the room for Louise who was now up and about.

We weren’t sure what to do and with precious time now left on our holiday we did not want to waste a day. Deciding against shopping, we opted for some mini golf and made a bee line for Fantasia Gardens which was handily placed just over the road.

A mixture of tiredness and incompetence saw us miss the entrance for that and have to carry on down the road for ages before finding somewhere to turn around. As the turning around place was Blizzard Beach we decided just to park up there and do the Winter Summerland course. It did not look too busy…

However, as we checked in we did see a fair few folks waiting to play so we had a wait of around half an hour.

We found ourselves a table to sit at and watched the ants carry huge chunks of food around whilst we chatted.

The game was great fun. It had been many years since we had played over in Florida and we were all glad we did.

Trivial things like who won or lost did not matter. What was important was having fun together and that is all I will say on the matter.

Once we were done and I had snapped my putter over my leg and thrown it in the bin, we drove over to the outlets that are Premium at Lake Buena Vista. As ever parking was harder than a moon landing but eventually we stumbled across a car pulling out and started in Gap, getting Dougie a cute Disney outfit. There weren’t too many shops in this part of the mall (we had parked over the road from what I consider the main bit) so we went over there and again luckily came across someone leaving and parked up.

For reasons nobody can explain Louise bought a handbag. It will look nice sat next to all the other new handbags stuffed into our wardrobe back home.

I was hangry at this point and food was required. I decided that we would go to Ford’s Garage, as I had heard many good reports about it.

I had booked us a table on their website as we pulled into the car park, but we would have been seated immediately anyway. I just couldn’t take that risk in my state of hunger.

We were not messing about here. We ordered an appetiser each, much to the incredulity of our server.

I had the pretzel rolls to start

Emily, the Fried Pickles

Louise, of course, Nachos

Then I had a Burnt Ends Sandwich

Emily the Veggie Burger

and Louise a Chipotle Chicken Sandwich, the most enjoyable part being Louise trying to say Chipotle when ordering it.

Apologies for the blur…

We were so full it hurt and we left short of $170 which included a large tip.

Our planned end to the day was over at Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks. We trammed in during the lovely dusk…

We had no intentions or plans to do anything but the fireworks so we just sat on a bench near the flag at the bottom of Main Street and people-watched. I wandered off over to Joffreys near Space Mountain to get some drinks and I would wager good money that was the longest queue of the whole trip.

Other than that we just watched Main Street be awesome as it went dark.

Our selected viewing spot was 99% due to its proximity to the exit and 1% due to the view, but it still wasn’t bad.

We saw a proposal….

and just enjoyed being here….and thought about those who couldn’t be.

I had a wander into the fire station on the way back from a wee….

And got ready for the show…

Emily is always in bits during these things but I admit that I too got the same way on this occasion, thinking about my Dad, and how much he loved the Magic Kingdom and the fireworks. I missed him a lot at this moment.

We were turned and headed for the exit on the b of the last Bang and were so quick off the mark we could get on the pleb monorail with no wait and did not have to resort to the resort one.

The journey out was subdued yet painless and after getting some water from the shop in the lobby at the hotel, we were tucked up in bed and asleep in no time.

Till the next time……

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Twelve Friday 20th January

16/04/202316/04/2023 by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Friday 20th January

Today started with a 6.45 alarm. Yay for being on holiday. Was this early rise required for onerous cruise departure activities? No. It was required as Disney think it’s OK to have their guests be awake at 7am in order to get on some rides at additional expense. Have I said I don’t like this?

As 7am rolled around I secured a Guardians virtual queue group and a LL for Remy. We were headed for Epcot once we got back to Orlando so I was sorting out all the admin related to going to a theme park.

We rose, showered, dressed, and packed our final bits into our hand luggage before heading for breakfast at 8am. We were eating in the Roy Disney restaurant.

We started with pastries.

I also had muesli as I am all about healthy eating.

You can tell we were dining alone now as my food photo game is back on point.

For balance, I also had French Toast.

Louise had what I wrote down as “scramble”. Make of that what you wish.

Emily had Eggs for the Road

It was all very, very nice and it made us a little sad that we hadn’t managed to get breakfast here earlier on the cruise.

We said our farewells to Edi, our server and went to sit in The Bayou until our group number was called to disembark. I Facetimed my Mum whilst we were waiting and gave her a brief tour of the ship.

We left the ship at 9 and it took about fifteen minutes to queue to get through customs.

We were soon back in the car and we had a smooth and painless drive back to Orlando. It took one hour and ten minutes until we pulled up at The Yacht Club.

We dropped our cases at Bell Services and headed out towards Epcot.

I do find it hard, no matter how often I try, to express my love for this place.

It felt good to be back in my spiritual, yet expensive home.

We stopped for a drink by the pool where we were joined by this delightful lot.

We continued our walk to the park…

arriving just after 12. We started our journey of the countries in the UK and as always tends to be the case, after a swift breeze through the shops, left again. This pavilion needs a show or a ride.

Then, O Canada.

The show may have changed, but thankfully, for their sake, Disney saw fit to retain the song and I soaked up every second of it and I think I even went live on Facebook to inflict it on others too.

We continued around the showcase heading now for Mexico. The queue at the Margarita stall could have benefitted from Guardians’ style virtual queue. It was enormous!

There were similar scenes inside the pavilion for the Tequila bar too. It may have passed me by in previous times as we were busy with small kids but the Epcot alcohol thing seems to have really become a thing in recent years.

We did our duty and rode the Three Caballeros ride.

I was feeling a little peckish at this point, having only had the three courses for breakfast, so I got an Apple cake thing from the Norway Pavilion bakery. It was pure filth in all the right ways.

We wandered on through the countries until in Italy, we got some light bites. I was served by a CM called Guiseppe (yes really), who was so good looking he made me reconsider my life choices.

Freid Mozzarella and Ravioli.

We found a quiet spot to eat them.

I honestly don’t think I had ever noticed that there was a ship here before.

We were joined by a very friendly seagull, hopeful of some pasta, but he was scared away by some idiot teen who thought chasing it was a fun activity. What is wrong with people?

We browsed around Italy for a while and then it was time for our Guardian’s return time. Yes, we were the furthest point possible away from it!

We stopped off sort of on the way at Journey Into Imagination to look in the shop for a Figment T-Shirt that Emily wanted. We were a little surprised to find hardly any Figment merch there.

We entered Guardian’s at 2.30 for Emily’s first ride. This time we got Tears for Fears as our soundtrack. This ride just makes me smile all the way around. It is tremendous fun.

I have to admit to feeling a little dizzy afterwards and we had ten minutes on a bench people-watching.

Now, our slot for Remy was close and yes, we were the furthest possible point away from that too. We set off on the long walk to France.

After a long wait since it opened and a few failed attempts, we finally got to ride it.

It is a very clever ride and I am glad we did it. I am resentful that we had to hand over a load extra dollars to do so but such is the way at the moment.

Having not watched “the film” in France since the old one years ago, we stopped into the Beauty and The Beast sing a long show and despite the low numbers made our way to the end of the row.

We now made our way back to Italy for our dinner reservation at Via Napoli.

On the way, we paused in Morocco to watch the belly dancer there. This was always a favourite with my Dad and not for the first or last time this trip, he was in our thoughts.

We checked in and were seated after about ten minutes. We had a table at the back of the restaurant.

We had a great server and great food, as always tends to be the case.

I had a beer flight.

We ordered –

Emily – Mozzarella and Tomato salad….

White pizza

Louise – Same starter, then four cheese pizza

Me – Rice Balls (but CVS would have a cream for that)

Piccante pizza

Something weird happened as we were ending the meal. Our server, out of nowhere asked Emily if she was a cast member or used to be and she said yes. He chatted with her about folks he had known from the UK pavilion and a load of other stuff and we never worked out or asked how on earth he knew that. We did ask if he recognised her but he said no.

Anyway, he then proceeded to give us a cast member discount and I responded with a very large tip.

We left at 6.30 and headed for the theatre at the America pavilion to watch the Broadway show.

I am always staggered to find these things are not packed out hours in advance. They are superb, but we are big musicals fans.

Tonight’s show was from a husband and wife duo. He had played Tarzan and she was in the Newsies Broadway show. The songs they chose weren’t particularly known to me, but we enjoyed them very much.

We were all flagging a bit now. It had been a long day. We walked back to the UK pavilion to catch the 8pm show from Command Performance. We found a bench thankfully and despite the band striking up and almost frightening a poor rabbit to death, the show was great if not a little short. It was empty when we arrived but very soon filled up.

We let the crowd disperse before making the short journey to the bridge and our usual firework-watching spot. I think you know by now that I was not the biggest fan of Harmonious and again as much as I could appreciate the technical skills of the show, it felt devoid of any soul and feeling. It was just random clips of songs with no real theme or message. I appreciate I may be trying to give a fireworks show too much gravitas here, but Reflections of Earth did it and spoiled it for all other fireworks shows.

I spared you the usual collection of blurry fireworks photos.

We walked slowly back to the resort and asked Bell Services to send our cases up to our room. Once we got there I realised that I had a distinct lack of cash for any tip. I cobbled together a few dollars in coins and handed that over sheepishly to the poor chap who delivered our bags.

We enjoyed the view from the balcony briefly.

Before being asleep by 10.30.

Till the next time……

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Eleven Thursday 19th January

09/04/2023 by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Thursday 19th January

Today was our day at sea, which ironically means there will not be much for you to see and read about. We had a slower start to the day than yesterday with nowhere to be anytime soon and we did not surface until after 9am!

We went for breakfast up at Marceline. We had by now discovered that you could have a sit-down breakfast in some restaurants but our lie-in meant we had missed those by now.

By now we had also discovered tables out on the deck so we found one of those to eat at after sourcing some food from one of the food stations. A bit of queuing today but nothing too bad.

I forget how, but we learned that the boat had made an unscheduled stop during the night somewhere around Miami to let off a cast member with health issues that needed a hospital.

Breakfast was very tasty, and I shall not disclose how many plates were involved.

Trying to figure out what that coastline was defeated me. My sense of direction and geography are woeful.

We left this lovely location to go to another up on deck 14 to find some sunbeds. It didn’t take us long to work out that the first ones we chose were not right as the sun was shining on the opposite side of the ship so off we toddled to some beds around there.

Everything was idyllic for a good while until a multi-generational Brummie family arrived on deck and began shouting conversations from one end of the deck to the other. It’s not that I am anti-social, I just don’t like people much, especially those who think anyone else needs to hear their conversations.

Throughout the day we ordered drinks, including a bucket of water bottles as the temperature was a scorcher today. There were a few coolings off in the shower/pool when the sweat hit places long unseen.

Mid-afternoon I went down to the Inside Out themed ice cream parlour. I got three tubs, each with three scoops in for just $19. I asked the CM to repeat that at the till as I wasn’t sure if he’d said $90. I would have been shocked at the latter but not as much as I was at getting all that, on a Disney cruise for $19. The bargain of the cruise and the contents were awesome too. Clearly, I had now been conditioned to Disney cruise prices from all the rounds of drinks we had bought.

Emily had retreated to the shade, beaten by the temperatures today.

Me – Rocky Road

Emily – Chocolate

Louise – Cookies & Cream

We made it until 4.30pm before letting the sun win, as it was showing no signs of going anywhere. We made our way back to the cabin for showers and some packing.

The characters were out and about.

The way checkout works, and that was what we’d be doing in the morning, you have to leave your cases outside your cabin the night before. Not ideal, but understandable. It would be chaos if every guest were dragging their luggage around with them.

At least we got all that packing out of the way now and we left the cabin at 5.45 headed for the Aladdin show in the theatre. We ordered some drinks and took a seat right at the back of the circle upstairs.

The show itself was great and we really enjoyed it, or would have….

but we left the theatre with mild PTSD after the utter chaos and lack of manners displayed by almost every guest around us. Unsupervised kids next to Louise were throwing food and drinks on the floor and constantly standing up, shouting and walking around. A family a few rows in front of us always had at least one of their number standing up, leaving or coming back to their seats. It sounds very first-world problems and it’s difficult to write down just how rubbish the experience was, but they need more CMs in the theatre to watch out for this stuff. Clearly, some people just don’t know how to behave in a theatre.

With the show over, we retreated to The Bayou for a calming beverage. We took the only table available right in front of the currently empty stage but this was a huge stroke of luck. Not long after this, the band turned up.

They were called The Wishes and their first set was full of interesting versions of Disney tunes. As many of you know, I am a rock God who frequently performs on stage, so I am well qualified to pass comment on a bunch of musicians who have forgotten more than I will ever know.

We really enjoyed their first set and were sad to see it end and dinner time approach. We left at 8.15 and went to the Roy Disney restaurant for our dinner.

This place is lovely.

We had…

Me – Tomato Soup, Filet Mignon and Cheesecake

Emily – Pasta, Tacos and a Sundae

Louise – Pasta, Filet Mignon and Bavarian Cream thing (not the official title)

Our table sharers for the cruise had to leave early in the morning to catch their flight home so would not be joining us for breakfast so this was to be our last meal together. We said our goodbyes to Stephanie, Bill and William…

and this was our excellent server Edi….

With dinner over, we returned to The Bayou and really enjoyed two more sets from the band. Honestly this for us was a real highlight of the cruise and we just wish we’d discovered them earlier.

We were dirty stop outs until after midnight.

We were at the stage of looking forward to seeing what the towel creature was on the return to our cabin each evening and the final effort did not disappoint.

Till the next time…….

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Ten Wednesday 18th January

02/04/2023 by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Wednesday 18th January

We were awake at 7am, excited to be at Castaway Cay today. Look, there’s a bit of it….

Wanting to avoid the scrum situation at Marceline Market and still not aware that some places did a more civilised sit-down breakfast, we had ordered room service last night. It was Continental in nature and absolutely fine. We wanted to be up, ready and poised to get off the boat as soon as possible so it worked well.

The view promised much for the day ahead.

We dressed and made our way to what we hoped was the right place to disembark and struck very lucky. As we stumbled out of the lift, still not sure where to go we arrived with perfect timing at the start of what looked like a long line back up the stairs that most folks had used to get there. After a five-minute wait we were allowed to disembark and we started our long walk to the beach.

We had decided to head for the adults-only beach. Look, I love kids…..that are related to me.

Being one of the first off the ship, my inner theme park commando wanted to set a blistering pace to stay ahead of the hordes of folks behind us, but due to Louise’s inability to sprint for a few miles at a time, we had to let some folks past us. It hurt.

We walked for ten minutes or so and arrived at the main area of the island. We asked a cast member where the adult beach was (we knew it was still a good distance away) and opted to take the tram the rest of the way. This took us there down the airstrip and to the adult beach.

We found a spot.

As we readied ourselves for a day of not much, I quickly discovered that Louise (you had one job) Williams had failed to put the sun cream into Ryan. I wandered off hoping to find a shop where some could be acquired. There was such a place but it meant getting back on the bloody tram and going back to the main area of the island. I was the only person travelling that way at this time of day, so I undertook a weird lonely tram ride. As I arrived back at the shops, I rolled from a still-moving tram, raced to the shop and hoped to get the thing bought and get back on the same tram before it set off again.

I was thwarted by some folks buying bloody souvenirs and deploying about 17 different discounts which meant the CM had to press more buttons than Rick Wakeman (ask your Dad) to process the sale. I watched the tram set off for where I wanted to go just as I took my receipt for the one item I had purchased.

I trudged back to the tram stop and settled in for my day ruining ten minute wait for the tram to return.

Oblivious to my struggles, as I returned Louise had done the ridiculous thing of starting a conversation with the family next to us. Appalled, Emily and I did our best to not get involved.

This family, from deep in some Deliverance-style Southern backwater, were telling Louise about how they went out to shoot things regularly and how we should try eating frogs and Gator tails. Hey, I eat Doughnut Burgers so who am I to judge?

We soaked up just being here all morning.

Until we were hungry enough to go and eat lunch. That was about one minute past 12.

It was a BBQ affair at the place just off the beach (no need to tram anywhere thankfully).

I finished with a cookie worthy of its own photo.

After lunch, on the way back to our beds we stopped at the bar for a drink.

I forget what the ladies had but I panic ordered an Aperol Spritz, which to my unrefined palette tasted like medicine.

Emily made a more successful order.

As we arrived back at our beds our Louisiana family next door had moved on, probably to shoot something, so we just lapped up the sun a little more.

Thinking I couldn’t come all this way and not venture into the water, I waded out a long way into the sea. I couldn’t walk far enough to get out of my depth. The water is crystal clear, and of course in January, chilly. I spotted a few Starfish, thankfully none of them chocolate. I returned to my sunbed and waited for the twins to descend out of my body cavity.

As the afternoon went on, the beach emptied, and that delightful late afternoon “golden hour” was just lovely and peaceful.

Louise and Emily ventured into the water for a little paddle before soaking up the last few minutes of sun. We had to be back on board by 4.45 so got the tram around 4.30.

It is a long old trek all the way back to the ship, with a change of tram halfway.

There was a security check as we re-boarded which didn’t take as long as waiting for the family in front to dig out their cabin keys for the crew to scan from the very bottom of the huge beach bag they had with them. As Scar says, be prepared!!

We went straight up to deck 11 and Marceline Market for a soft drink, with a nice view.

Back at the room we all showered and left again at 7.15 after a few photos of the view.

We stopped at the Star Wars bar (probably not its real name) for a drink.

The drinks menu was on some George Lucas style iPad.

The drinks were weird. My beer was a fruity one.

Louise’s wine was pretty standard other than the man sat in it.

The names and contents of Emily and Louise’s cocktails were really something I should have written the names of in my notes!

It was an unusual and pretty cool experience, but a bit loud, so like some noise-weary pensioners we moved next door to Nightingales.

We ordered our “usuals” and listened to some more piano playing.

With those finished, we were back in Arendelle tonight for dinner so we headed over there.

I ordered –

Crab Cakes, Jerk Chicken and Cheesecake.

Here is the Chicken.

Louise had –

Samosa, Jerk Chicken and Banana Bread Pudding…

Emily –

Samosa, Stir Fry and Banana Bread Pudding

All of the food was good, but we felt the desserts were a little tasteless. We of course still finished them all.

Tonight was Pirate’s night, for which we had not dressed up, but it was nice to see many had, including all the servers. After dinner, we went to Deck 14 to watch the Pirate Band perform at 10.15 and then catch the fireworks.