Sunday, September 9, 2018

Europe - Day 13 (Transatlantic Day 0)

Cheers and Bon Voyage

We start our trip home today... well, we board the Disney Magic for an 11-night Transatlantic Cruise... which will ultimately get us back to the US.. so "home".

But first we breakfasted at the hotel buffet and packed up. Our check-in boarding time was 11:30 am, but we can't return the rental car until noon. Meaning the car rental place isn't even open until noon. So we have some time to explore or not.

The Magic in the Distance
Scenes from our drive around Dover



Once we had driven around enough to know where the cruise ship terminal was and how to get to it, we drove for a bit. And by about 11:30 we gave in and hubby dropped us off at the port. The kids and I went through security and took a seat to wait for hubby. My impression is that it was a busy day for Enterprise in Dover, and perhaps they aren't used to that kind of traffic. But he got back to us at the cruise terminal and we proceeded to check-in and board the ship! [Editor's note: Dropping off your family then going to return the car was a popular option. I shared a cab from the the Enterprise office back to the port with two other people who had done the same thing.]
It's been a handful of years since we have been on the Magic.


In attempt to eat lunch at a close to normal time, we went to lunch at Cabanas. Then I ran to the spa to make pedicure appointments for the young lady and I. And at this point our room was ready for us and we even had two suitcases eager to be unpacked (yes, I might be excited to unpack for a while).

The afternoon was relaxed and familiar, which was very nice. We have late seating for dinner on this cruise.... I know, LATE seating... are you crazy? Quite possibly, but we have this as our logic: We are making a 5 hour time change over the course of this voyage. Other than tomorrow and the day we leave the ship :(, we will be keeping a later schedule. And when we get off the ship, we will be on New York time, so eating at 8pm in New York is like eating at 5pm at home.... so we feel justified, I hope that makes sense.

First coffee on the Ship - Salted Carmel Coconut Mocha, Ymmmmm

Cliffs of Dover in the distance


Our Stateroom

The boys caught all of the Welcome Aboard show. I joined in the final minutes, while our young lady was in the club for a fair amount of the evening.
Dinner was funny. Our serving team seems great, but our tablemates ditched us. Half of the group wasn't at the table and had apparently decided they wanted a table to themselves. The half of the group we met apologized and assured us they would have been good tablemates...too funny. Then before our server had time to catch up with what was going on... three new ladies joined us. They missed the first seating dinner and just needed to eat, so they joined us for tonight only.
It worked out and we would be fine if they joined us again.  Tomorrow we will see what we end up with, if we are by ourselves...or get rotating guests.

Not a bad view

After dinner we settled in. Tomrrow will be early.

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