Disney Magic - my 1st cruise

Ooohh 3 workdays left and 3 sleeps until we go to the airport (the night before)

Tomorrows job is hitting up the local fancy dress shop for a few pirate bits. And the washing machine goes on for the last time tomorrow. Then it's the last few bits to pack and we are all set to go

And....

My new job has made it possible to book a new trip, I was aiming at NY cruise, then thought of the next place on my bucket list (Las Vegas) but in the planning I've found a tour that does, LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, monument valley, Grand Canyon, mamouth lakes, Yosemite and several other stops along route. A great bonus is that my Mum wants to come too so we are going for it in March. It's great because I will have planning waiting for me when I get back.

Here is our Fish extender - thanks to Mum for the applique (I love sewing but hate applique)

I'm home, in fact I've been home for over a week. I have had a serious case of cruise blues. I have decided not to write a trip report as I have an overflowing memory box and a huge array of photos to document my time but not many notes. I thought though I would capture my highs and lows as a reminder

Highs:
- my biggest high and a bucket list item... I climbed to the top of a volcano! I have so many pictures, for me I love the history of volcanoes and with my legs getting to the top was a real challenge, at 1 point I nearly didn't make it, thanks to Constanza and Tim and my Tim for helping me get there, I still get emotional knowing that I did it I was rewarded with stunning views of Capri, Sorrento and Naples.
- meeting so many fab people - shout out to Ray, Brianne, Linda, Shelley, Julie and Paula. I can honestly say that I loved spending time with all of them, and others
- fletcher and his mixology classes, I can highly recommend the martini tasting, however it does make the boat 'move' a lot!
- Pisa and Rome more places on my wish list, and another climbing challenge to get to the top of Pisa, again I did it and was well rewarded, in Rome I know now that I need to spend another 4-5 days exploring as there was no way of seeing everything. And the Pope was home so It was super packed.
- cruise life in general, I really enjoyed the excitement of a new adventure everyday, there was so much I did not get to do onboard as we were just so busy.
- a random high, I managed to come back the same weight as I left! This was no mean feet - the food was amazing. I loved the variety but my heart goes out to Animators palate.
- fish extenders - as much fun as I had hoped, would definitely do it again.

Lows:
There was only 1 low. As the Magic was going into dry dock straight after we got off, a lot of things, including most of the top deck got shut down very early (7pm) on our last night. You could still go up there but the chairs had gone and the basketball court was shut. It just felt like we lost our last full night a bit.

I am looking forward to doing another Disney cruise at some point, but this trip has really started my travel bug. I have a new countdown but it's not a Disney one... There will be some Disney in my next trip (soda fountain, El capitain and Grumans and possibly DTD in California) I think I want to wait for WDW and see what happens with the studios, and 2017 might be another cruise, or maybe Disneyland.... Still planning hahaha

Speaking from an East Coast perspective, I'd take the trip west any day of the week over cruising on the East Coast. The coastal US tends to be quite a rocky place to sail a boat. I haven't made it to all of your western destinations yet, but San Francisco all by itself would get me to choose that trip instead. What a fun, beautiful city! I've lived somewhere in the extended Baltimore/DC metro area my whole life and I love my "local" cities, but San Francisco was an entirely different experience from any east coast city that I've ever visited.