...

 ... Braves lose, little bug, opossums, fern stands... updates coming soon...

...

 ...Team Edge performs, KidPak planning (Sunday, Father's Day, SX26 booklet, etc.), beautiful weather, Braves first to 30 wins, 

Keep Moonwalking

Got another post card from the Moon!  Still walking along this trail in space, following star dust and all that.  While walking, today's movie was "Space Chimps," which I'm about halfway through at the moment, keeping up with the whole space exploration theme.  I'm about 70% or so through this virtual walk, but it's been a good one, as there have been a lot of post cards, images and different moments along the way, but also all of these VHS and DVDs I've been watching on the television the whole journey.  Super fun.

Okay, so yeah I was back to work today.  Mom was still doing laundry.  Maddie was ... I'm not sure what she was doing, but I'm sure it was awesome!  We finished the Summer Xtreme booklet today, and that is going to be great to have all done and ready to go.

We had a more chill day today, certainly nothing as hugely scheduled as last week of course.  But it was nice nonetheless.  I got home and we all were watching the Braves vs. Cubs, basically the teams with the two best records in baseball.  We were number one beforehand, and we defeated the Cubs pretty well tonight to get even further ahead.  The Braves are doing really well, and it's just been fun watching this BravesVision, as the team is really fun broadcasting the game and other things going on.  I think it's the other things going on that add a bit of craziness, from hamsters, ice cream, second buttons, eel bites, giant sandwiches and more.  And then the other things being shown, ceremonies and post-game interviews and all kinds of interesting things.  It's been our staple this year!

 

National Twilight Zone Day

First, the Twilight Zone.  Mom marked down "Twilight Zone Day" on the calendar, and after a bit of searching I found a streaming channel that had all the episodes on it, so yeah, we watched a few old-school episodes tonight.  And we watched our very own KidPak version too, something we made a few years ago that was a lot of fun.

The day itself was pretty restful.  I was marching along this morning, back on the treadmill with my walk to the moon.  I finished up "Hidden Figures" while walking towards the moon.  Mom spent the entire day cleaning up, particularly doing laundry.  

We set up our new Disney Cruise souvenir here, the Cogsworth clock.  He looks great, and works just fine there.  That's a nice souvenir!  But now it was time for taekwondo, and the usual Monday routine... sort of...

New t-shirts and decorations at Edge!

The big event of the night was testing for taekwondo.  Maddie didn't feel like doing that tonight, probably because she just got back from a cruise.  But Nate was testing and she hadn't seen him in a bit.  She had the camera with her tonight and took a lot of great pictures for the team.

Maddie drove us over to taekwondo, by the way.  And then drove us to boba tea afterwards, because it's tradition!  And then... she drove us home, because it was getting late.

We watched another "Mandalorian" episode tonight, the one that re-introduces us to Ahsoka Tano.  We'll be moving through all these episodes again as we get closer to the release of the movie in theaters.  Should be fun.

And that was it for today - we read tonight from "Snuff," our latest Discworld book, and after that it was time for prayers.... and sleep!

Journey Home

And here we are, back at Port Canaveral.  Looking outside, you can see the port is filled with cruise ships, ready to take off on Mother's Day.  Yes, that's right, it's Mother's Day.  Most of our luggage is gone at this point, packed up and put outside the cabin the night before.  All that remains is to clean up, get our stuff together, enjoy a quick breakfast at the Enchanted Garden, and then it's time to disembark.  Kind of bittersweet, really.

Then off to the Enchanted Garden for one final meal aboard the Fantasy!

It was short and sweet.  It's sort of melancholy watching the big room gradually empty, the passengers leaving the room and eventually the boat.  Next, it was our turn to say "see you real soon."

It was a much easier process than it ever had been before, thanks to all kinds of facial recognition and so forth.  Convenient, and terrifying!  Anyway, we went down the gangplank and back on dry land.  Fun fact:  for the past four days, Mom and I only got off the boat for a total of maybe an hour and a half.

Anyway, we got back to the parking deck and said our goodbyes to Uncle George and Thip.  They were heading up to the cemetery, and then down to Miami.  We had a bit of a longer drive:  home.  It was time for the long drive home, and it wasn't so bad.  To help, we made a few stops along the way.

Oh goodness, first a rest stop not far away.  I already had to use the rest room!  Okay, let's try again.  Next stop!

We visited the Buc-ee's in Daytona, which was a big mistake in that the cars were lined up outside and it took a while just to get to the Buc-ee's.  The exit and turning lane was just so crowded, and it was like this last time too.  Okay, so next time we'll do the Jacksonville Buc-ee's and skip this one.  Just too many people!  But we needed gas, so I got there and filled up and we all went in to get some drinks and a snack or two.  We weren't in there for two long, we felt like molecules in some science experiment about an area being heated up.  So we drove out of there, no problems going around Jacksonville and across I-10.  We were listening to some Discworld radio dramas that Mom got me for Christmas.  Through the course of the day we listened to "Mort" and "Guards!  Guards!"  And soon enough, we found ourselves crossing the Georgia State Line again.

The Georgia Welcome Center!  They had a neat little semiquincentennial display there, a nice one.  We always pick up a few brochures while there, stretching our legs and walking along.  But now it was time to head up another eighty miles or so to... 

The Great Peanut of Ashburn, the World's Largest Peanut.  Wow, I remember when the hurricane knocked this down for a while a few years ago.  It's been restored and looking nicer than ever.  It's somewhat of a landmark here in South Georgia, this massive peanut.  But it's also nearby a store called "Carroll's Sausage and Country Store," which we enjoyed stopping at.  While there, we even got a few things to drink before moving on to get more pictures with the giant peanut.

Moving right along!  We had just one more stop, and I think you know what that probably was.  

We got a few drinks from the next Buc-ee's, filled the car up with gas, walked around a bit, and then just drove straight home.  This time, no traffic in Henry Country.  But still some traffic in Atlanta this time.  I had in all this old-school Disney music to keep me awake - I didn't sleep as well last night.  But it was fun listening to Mary Poppins in the car again!  

So we arrived home without any incidents, and Mom saw some new gifts for her birthday there - some potted ferns.  We'll order some stands for those and they'll look nice on the front porch there.

But we made it.  Always a wild thing at the end of these days when you look around at the house and all the ordinariness of it and then think back on the fact that this very morning we were having breakfast in the Enchanted Garden on the Fantasy.  

Tonight we managed to stay awake and watch the replay of the Braves game today - they defeated the Dodgers again, 7-2.  The Braves are having a really great start to the year, and that's been fun to watch.  Anyway, it's time for bed.  We read tonight, and we said our prayers, and it was quite easy to get some sleep tonight.

Tea At Sea, and More

It's our day at sea - and first thing:  tea!  It's a great tradition in the morning on the cruise for me to wander upstairs a few flights to get to the deck there.  Mid-deck there's a drink station, and it's there that I get the tea started, carrying it all downstairs and back to the room for us to have a little tea at sea.

It's always nice to see all the prints and wall hangings along the way, each floor themed to different movies and concept art from that movie.  You can see some Fantasia on the way up here. 

And then it was time to go to the Princess Court!  I guess it was something like a little over a month ago that I was up until midnight, waiting online with a bunch of other people on this cruise to sign up for a slot here.  I was able to get a 9:30am time today and it was a great moment.  You can see the atrium here is all abuzz with the visiting princesses.  Cinderella was up on the second level, and meanwhile below there was Tiana, Belle, Jasmine, and Mulan!  Oh, how great to see Mulan.  I remember just missing out on a visit with Mulan some time ago when we went to EPCOT center, and it's been a while here, but finally we got a picture of Maddie with Mulan.  

So yes, we get there at a particular time slot - these princesses were here all morning seeing lots of families.  The photographers were ready to go - before the cruise, we signed up for the photo package, and by the time this was all over with, we managed to have a total of 161 photos taken by photographers.  There was actually 162, but they lost that one extra picture, and that's okay.  Anyway, we went through the line, and basically we all line up and visit the four characters one at a time, and Maddie got to stop and spend some time talking with each one.  Here are some of the photos from our time with the Princess Court. 

It was a relaxing day after this - we were off to get some coffee, and spent some time exploring and relaxing.

Oh, and some shuffle boarding!  Yes, we went out on the deck there and had a few rounds of shuffleboard out there, and the weather was just perfect.  Look at this, just the picture of a relaxing time, the ocean as our backdrop as we slide those pucks. 

And while we were out there, we met a few friends to pose for pictures with!  We met with Kermit and a few others after that, courtesy of a photographer out there on deck.

After that, we went to the main atrium for a huge event.  It was time for the Baby Jack-Jack Dash!

This is that event where the babies line up at the start line, and parents do all they can to get those children to crawl to the finish line first.  It's hilarious and fun, the atrium filled with cheers and laughter.  The babies might just sit there, or maybe they'll go about halfway and then veer off course, or maybe they'll go backwards!  Parents dangle toys or read storybooks as they try to coax the kids along.  It's a lot of fun to watch!

We had a quick meal up top - Luigi's Pizza has been really good lately with their margarita pizza.  Each afternoon, there were some pretty fun elaborate folded towels up there on deck.  

There was also... more ice cream!  

And that brought us to a few afternoon rounds of trivia!  We went to O'Gill's Pub and that place became completely filled with nerds because it was time for Star Wars Trivia!

We did great with this one!  We got all twenty questions right and we pretty much tied for first place.  The tiebreaker question for the final four was "how many inches tall is an AT-ST?"  Closest answer wins.  We got close!  Anyway, we got our second medal of the cruise here, and as you can see, Maddie was pretty thrilled.  She also got a collection of Star Wars-themed rubber duckies!

We also did some other trivia games here today, including the Muppet Trivia at the La Piazza lounge area.  We did pretty good, although not first place this time.  We also were over at the D-Lounge for a really fun live music trivia game.  Maddie got "Santa Fe" right away, and there were a lot of other ones we got that were real stumpers.  We were up there, but fell just short of a win on that one too.  But we were definitely doing well with trivia this cruise, and it was a lot of fun.

But guess what was next?  The AQUADUCK!  Uncle George, Thip, Maddie and I went right up there, and it was about a twenty minute wait, but we got onboard our inflatable boats and went riding down that tube that goes around the top deck of the boat.  It was great fun!  This was that extra picture that didn't show up though - they were having technical difficulties with the camera they said, so our posed shot on the slide didn't show up.  Oh well!  It was still fun!

And afterwards, it was time to head back to the room and help Mom pack up a bit.  It was almost time for our show tonight!  Maddie's shirt needed ironing, so look what we found:  each floor has a laundry room with ironing boards!

All that ready, it was time for tonight's big production:  Frozen!

It's a great, great production!  The performances and stage effects are just amazing, and it was a really great show.  All of us enjoyed it quite a bit.  The use of the scrim and the digital effects made Elsa's powers really come alive.  The kids were loving it!

One more sunset!  We had a little time before dinner, so while the temperature and scenery were just right, we went up top to get in that game of Goofy's mini-golf.

Pretty sunset.  And then it was time for one last dinner on board the Disney Fantasy. 

Here we are at the Enchanted Garden, off to the side quite a bit, but at least with our own window.  We even opened it up at one point to watch the waves go by as the sun set.  It's a nice themed place, the atmosphere slowly changing as you eat, with floral lighting above gradually blooming through each course.  

Here's something fun about the waiters:  they know you.  They follow you through the course of the cruise, so they know what you like.  Tonight before we even arrived at the table, there was a bottle of hot sauce for Maddie!

It was a very pleasant meal together.  And we were all honestly a bit tired - we had a big day.  But it was a fun day, that's for sure.  Sad to be the last one on the boat though.  Here are a few more pictures from The Enchanted Garden, and some really unique appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

And then... it was time to go back to the cabin.  We made a small appearance at the See Ya Real Soon Party...

But it was time for bed, certainly.  Our towel creation was amazing as always...

And we were still getting gifts inside our door hanging...!

But soon it was time for bed.  We were tired, and tomorrow's a big day.  It's been a lovely cruise indeed, and we really did enjoy it. Sad to go home so soon - maybe next time will be longer!  We said our prayers tonight, and we read from our latest Discworld book too.  And then, it was off to sleep as the ship raced over the waters and back towards home.