browser life

Am very tired from the visiting the in-laws' house tonight for a delayed Christmas dinner. Was snowed in for Christmas Eve and day, and the roads were only completely plowed and safe to drive across town this afternoon following FIVE consecutive days of snow. But now I'm ready to pick up where I left off in my tale of Caribbean and Disney adventure.....

To be honest, my memory of Wednesday, November 11 is kinda spotty. It was our "day at sea", meaning we had no off-ship excursions or obligations of any kind except dinner. I was heading to mega-flare land from all the activity and lack of sleep since Saturday.

Don't know when I woke up, but it probably wasn't very late because of the usual intercom announcements. Dan went and did something with his family, I think, and I lounged, watching the debarkation presentation on the TV. I found out much to my surprise that we were supposed to have everything except our day bags packed and ready to be picked up by 9pm THAT NIGHT, while we would be at dinner, even though we didn't leave the ship until the next morning.

Sounds simple enough, having your bag picked up 12 hours before you disembark. But you have to remember to have your next day's clothes out, or you'll have to get off the ship in your pajamas, heh heh. And you have to set aside something to hold your morning toiletries and night clothes.

You also need to have your customs forms ready and your shipboard account settled. All the things you charged on the ship go automatically to your credit card, but you have to figure out tips for the room and dining staff. I spent some time doing this and filling out a lengthy survey.

Did finally gather up enough energy to head with Dan and his family to one of the theatres for a 1pm showing of "Up" in 3-D. Dan hadn't seen it before, and I had, but not in 3-D. I liked how the waterfall scenes became so much more real looking with the effects, and Dan enjoyed the whole thing as I had hoped he would.

But the movie was pretty much the extent of my capacity for the day. There was a nice Broadway-style show that evening that Dan's parents, grandfather and Virginia went to see, but I was just too brain fried for any more entertainment, so I hung out in the stateroom for awhile. Probably just as well, because I had to get my ginormous suitcase re-packed and figure out what all had to go in it and what needed to go in the day bag.

After I had cleaned out every drawer and shelf and had gotten everything sorted or at least accounted for, I was ready to leave the room for a bit. Dan and I went to Shutters, the gallery where they posted all the photos that had been taken of you by staff on board the ship. We decided to purchase three: one of our whole group, one of Dan and I at Triton's the first night, and one of Dan and I during the pirate party. Then, because we were done with shipboard charges, we went to do an early check-out so I wouldn't have to settle my bill the next morning when I would be even more brain-fried.

Once we had all our obligations taken care of, Dan and I wandered around to check out anything on the ship we hadn't viewed yet. Other than some sketches and other artwork in lobbies and such, we'd covered everything, so we just sat in one of the atriums and people watched while I had a snack. One of the things I never tire of is listening to the accents of people from all over the world.

We went back to the stateroom when the first dinner shift started, and I took my evening shower. I was sooooo wiped out afterward I would have given anything to just lie down and sleep for several days, but we needed to get our suitcases out into the hall ready to be picked up before we headed to dinner. When we left the room, I was shaking and confused and very glad to be using the wheelchair.

Our last dinner was at Parrot Cay, a Caribbean-themed restaurant. Luckily, the wait staff knew me well enough to bring me an unsweetened iced tea right away, and the caffeine made me feel a bit better. And I had ordered the night before, so I had no decisions to make.

The cold papaya and mango soup I had was amazing! The main course was poached halibut with clams and mussels, which was delicious but surprisingly filling. By the time I had ice cream for dessert, I felt like I would explode.

There was actually one more deck party that night, but no way was I capable of going. Like the night before, once Dan and I got back to the stateroom, he got to go to sleep immediately, and I fought to stay alert and upright for three more hours. And once again, my book sat pretty much unread in my hand as I conked out most uncomfortably on the couch until Dan woke me up and told me it was time to come to bed.

The morning of November 12 came much too early as we needed to get our morning routine done, finish with the stateroom, load up our day bags and be back at the Parrot Cay restaurant for breakfast by 8am and be off the ship by 9am. I was grateful that breakfast was ala carte so I could easily order only what I needed, scrambled eggs and some fruit. I thought we were pretty much good to go, but I was wrong.

It seems that I had been so brain dead that I had failed to notice a HUGE clerical error on our check-out statement. Dan had to run over to Guest Services and get it resolved before we could leave, and the clock was ticking. And Virginia had left the room keys in her stateroom, not realizing they were needed to check out, and didn't know about the customs forms, so that needed to be straightened out too.

We ended up being one of the last groups to disembark. We searched and searched for a missing bag only to discover that it was right in front of us and its owner had forgotten what color it was. And we needed assistance getting through customs.

One off the ship, we were in for a nasty surprise: tropical storm Ida had followed us to Port Canaveral, Florida. It was windy, raining and probably 40 degrees outside. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and of course my warmer clothes were in the big suitcase that had been sent ahead.

We did manage to catch the very last bus which took us back to the Orlando airport. There was a video to watch, but I dozed uncomfortably pretty much the whole trip. Was quite grateful for the wheelchair once we got to the airport, because I was toast.

We waited around for Dan's grandfather and Virginia to get picked up, and then Dan, his parents and I caught another Disney bus to go to the All Star Movies hotel. I think I dozed off during that ride too. Our hotel is one of the Disney properties, but it is one of the furthest out.

Even though it was mid-afternoon, it took a ridiculously long time to get checked in for some reason. I was too exhausted and cranky to inquire about it. After some wandering around, we found the building our room was in and unloaded everything.

Then everyone wanted to know if we were going to go eat or go to Downtown Disney or what. I kind of flipped out then because I was freezing (the air conditioning was on in the room!) and too tired to even form a coherent sentence, let alone form a game plan. The last thing I felt like doing was shopping.

But after I threw my little temper tantrum, I made myself calm down, put on the jeans and sweatshirt I had planned to wear on the plane back to Sioux Falls, borrow Dan's hooded sweatshirt to wear over that and figure out what I was gonna do about lunch. The hotel had a food court, which is pretty much second only to buffets for being a dangerous place for a celiac to eat. But I didn't have the energy to go anywhere else.

After wandering around the food court for awhile, I didn't really see anything promising, so I asked one of the people working at the counter what I might be able to eat. She brought the head chef out of the back, and he was soooo nice, a huge relief because my nerves were totally frayed. He actually offered to make me my own personal-sized gluten free pizza, and I gratefully accepted.

Couldn't find any unsweetened iced tea anywhere, but I did notice they had hot water and tea bags, so I was able to make some hot tea and get some desperately needed caffeine into me. Once I did that and had some pizza, I was considerably more cheerful. I agreed to give Downtown Disney a shot.

The cool thing about staying at a Disney resort is that the shuttles are free and will take you anywhere in Disney World. It was a verrry long ride to Downtown Disney, but I was more willing to endure it with warm food in my tummy. We arrived about 4pm I think.

Downtown Disney is basically specialty shops with a few restaurants and activities thrown in for good measure. I'm not really much of one for shopping, but I forgot all about that once I saw the adorable Christmas ornaments in the first shop window, heh heh. And they had some cute outdoor holiday displays along with a carousel, so I had a few things to take pictures of.

Too funny - I had warned Dan against purchasing too many souvenirs, but I turned out to be the problem, not him. The Christmas store had entire displays of things I would have loved to bring home, like stuffed Eeyores with candy canes in their mouths. The ornaments were really lovely, but also really breakable, so not suitable for having on the plane with me.

My resolve wavered and then finally disappeared in the clothing store. I got a pink nightshirt with Eeyore on it saying "it's never too early for chocolate", to replace the decade-old faded nightshirt I had. And because I don't have enough long-sleeved t-shirts, I got a purple thermal one with a Mickey Mouse graphic on it.

The one completely frivolous thing I just had to have was a small stuffed Pluto. It was simply too adorable to leave behind. Then I was finally ready to call it quits on the purchases.

Dan's parents got tired and wanted to have a snack at McDonalds, so Dan and I agreed to meet them later while we checked out the rest of Downtown Disney. There were some interesting displays, like giant Tinker toys and an even larger Loch Ness Monster made of Lego. Shockingly, while taking pix, I discovered I had filled up an entire memory card, which meant I had taken probably 600 photos on the trip (luckily, I had brought a backup card)!

The wind picked up after the sun went down, and we all were getting kinda cold, so we went back to the entrance to catch the bus by 6pm. Some French ladies who were laden with shopping bags sat next to us and chatted excitedly all the way back, which was amusing. I got bits and pieces of their conversation, but my French is awfully rusty these days.

Back at the room, everyone else dropped off to sleep pretty early, but I of course had to stay up for awhile, so I sat in a chair and read my book and propped my feet up on the edge of the bed since there was no other place to elevate them. I think I called it a night about 11pm.