A Little Trans-Atlantic Magic - The (somewhat) LIVE TR! -updated 07/03/13 - Page 31 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Old 06-26-2013, 03:57 PM   #451
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WOW - I just spent over 3 hours reading through your entire trip report thus far. So many wonderful memories! I love how the ship didn't roll at all way out on the Atlantic but once you're near land, it starts. Go figure. Meri looks so cute in all of her dresses It's kinda neat that through this TR, I get to experience what a Disney cruise is like for a family with kids. Definitely lots more character meets! LOL

I thoroughly enjoy reading your trip report and look forward to more installments!
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Old 06-27-2013, 12:33 AM   #452
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen View Post
Sounds like a fabulous day in Madeira! It looks like a beautiful place, and I can see why you'd want to return to explore a bit more. I'm intrigued by the restaurant with the cliff hugging elevator.
Still love the dagger eyes Meri shot at you on the catamaran! You'd never expect it from such a cutie (but I know ALL about that - my DD's dimples charm everyone, but she can give me a look that could slay a dragon!).
Lousy about the arcade expense! And then to add insult to injury, not even being able to use the card later....
Yeah that restaurant must have amazing food!

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Originally Posted by mushu22 View Post
All caught up, enjoying every update. Your photos of Meri with the characters are so cute and all the scenery pictures
Thank you! We certainly have lots of character photos! She was a little firecracker with them!

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Originally Posted by num1DVCfan View Post
I don't even know where to begin, but I'm all caught up. You're right, the pictures of brunch were amazing.

I can't believe how rude those adults were at the princess gathering. Good thing the wife finally made her husband move. I think I would have had to say something and I'm not typically a person who deals with confrontation.

What a wonderful day on Maderia! The excursion looked like a lot of fun, but I think I would have just enjoyed the exploring you did before hand. Oh my goodness, I'm not sure what I think about the elevator on the cliff!
I'm not a confrontational person either, I tend to just roll my eyes at people... but when my kid's experience starts getting messed with, that's when I start getting really irritated, and I'm more likely to say something. Fortunately it wasn't the end of the world, and fortunately the wife was a little swifter on the uptake...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Disneybine View Post
WOW - I just spent over 3 hours reading through your entire trip report thus far. So many wonderful memories! I love how the ship didn't roll at all way out on the Atlantic but once you're near land, it starts. Go figure. Meri looks so cute in all of her dresses It's kinda neat that through this TR, I get to experience what a Disney cruise is like for a family with kids. Definitely lots more character meets! LOL

I thoroughly enjoy reading your trip report and look forward to more installments!
I'm so glad you're enjoying it! We really created so many memories on this trip. It was just a great time! I do hope to come up with more installments soon, lol! I'm home until 430pm daily, but Meri is pretty high-energy and it's hard to have too much down time around her, because she constantly wants attention, interaction and activity. Today we spent the morning running errands, and then at the park, then went to McDonald's for lunch (and the play room), and Gracie Bleu (ice cream) for dessert, and then I had an hour at home before work! Phew! Next week she's at camp from 9-2'ish (haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllelujah), so I'll have lots of quiet time!! But I do plan on updating tomorrow (today for you Europeans, lol).
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My Previous TripsMay 2016 - RCCL Baltic Cruise * Dec 2015 - Carnival Dream Caribbean Cruise (My 40th) * Mar 2015 - EPCOT Day * Nov 2014 - Carnival Elation Caribbean Cruise (Mom's 75th) * Feb 2014 - CBR / Disney Dream Bahamas Cruise (Meri's 8th) * June 2013 - Disneyland Paris * May 2013 - Disney Magic Transatlantic Cruise * Oct 2012 - Disneyland * Sept 2012 - Port Orleans Riverside (Royal Room) * Feb 2012 - Boardwalk Villas / Animal Kingdom Villas (Kidani Village) (Crissy's Bachelorette) * Oct 2011 - Port Orleans Riverside / Bonnet Creek * Feb 2011 - Caribbean Beach Resort (Pirate Room) / Animal Kingdom Lodge (Meri's 5th) * Nov 2009 - Port Orleans French Quarter (Mom's 70th) * Feb 2009 - Coronado Springs (Meri's 3rd) * Feb 2008 - Port Orleans Riverside (Meri's 2nd) * Sept 2006 - Boardwalk Inn * Prior to 2006 - Too many visits to count...
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Old 06-28-2013, 10:21 AM   #453
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It took me two days to read through your trip report! It is fabulous! Thank you for sharing!! We are booked on the EBTA for May 2014. It looks like you had a great time! :-)
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Old 06-29-2013, 03:45 PM   #454
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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Gibraltar Day!!! I was up SO early today! I guess I was just so excited that I couldn’t sleep! I woke at 5:30am, and just couldn’t get back to sleep. Finally at 5:45am I gave up and got up. Everyone else in the cabin was still asleep so I got dressed and wandered around the ship, taking photos of all of the empty areas like the bars.







Rockin Bar D








I loved the hallways




Sessions




Diversions




Game tables!




Promenade Lounge




I went to the top deck to try to get a shot of Gibraltar all lit up, but of course, my camera wouldn’t cooperate, so I gave up.

At 6:30am I went back downstairs and mom was up. We let Meri sleep until almost 7am, and then we roused her. She woke up quite easily, actually, and was ready to go! We grabbed breakfast, and headed up to Topsiders. It was too chilly to sit outside, so we sat inside by a window, and filled up our tummies while debating what piece of land was what. It was a little confusing, because the back side of “The Rock” doesn’t look like anything but a hill.



So we weren’t sure if it was indeed “The Rock”. A CM pointed out a mountain across the water, and told us that was Gibraltar, and that we would have to take a boat to it.



What? I didn't know much, but I knew that wasn’t accurate. I strongly suspected that the mountain the CM was referring to was actually over in Morocco, but I wasn’t going to argue with the guy. He just didn’t know.

We headed down to the gangway on Deck 1 at about 8:15am, and it turned out that my suspicion was right! The Rock was indeed the big lump in front of us, lol. We considered taking a taxi but I thought we could walk it, so off we went. In retrospect, we should have just taken the taxi, but who knew?







It took us about 15 minutes to walk to Main Street, and everything was pretty much still closed, but we enjoyed meandering and checking out the sights.



You could pick up these maps along the way for either a Euro or a dollar


I got a kick out of this sign




We did stop to pick up postcard stamps, and that was kinda expensive – one euro per stamp!



Once those were mailed, we continued meandering a bit. We walked almost all of the way down Main Street, and then we headed down two streets to pick up a bus to Europa Point. Funnily enough, when we got on the bus, we ran into the couple we shared the table with at Parrot Cay on the first day for lunch! We hadn’t seen them for the entire trip, but we ran into them on a random bus in Gibraltar. Funny how things work out!

The bus to Europa Point was roughly 10 minutes, and it cost I think 1.70 Euro for Meri, 2.00 Euro for mom (senior rate) and 2.50 Euro for me, for all day riding on the bus. Apparently the bus system used to be free for everyone, tourists included, but then the tour guides from Spain would bring their tour groups over and commandeer buses for free, and use them for their tours, so that practice had to stop.

Europa Point is where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet, and from there you can see Spain, Gibraltar (UK) and Africa. It was really beautiful, and a neat sight.



Meri, with Africa behind her!


Emmy with Africa behind her... (lol)




There’s a lighthouse and a mosque as well, and also a large playground.















There’s a little café, and we picked up some gelato, which was nice. Meri played on the swings and chatted to a sweet old lady while I relaxed in the sun.















When the bus came back, we hopped on and headed back to the center of town.



We paused to say hi to another bus - this is how close the cars and buses were to each other! They didn't scootch closer to us, this is how close they were as they passed!



Once back in the center of town, Meri quickly wanted to poke into a cemetery, so we checked it out quickly.







These were all over town


Then it was back to Main Street, where we stopped for lunch at Jury’s Café. We sat outside and it was lovely! Nice, friendly service and very prompt, since we were in a bit of a hurry to get back to the boat for our 1:15pm tour!







Meri got spaghetti


Mom and I each got an omelet


Mine had ham and cheese, mom's had onion, tomato and cheese. I have to tell you, it was the best omelet I’ve ever had in my life. It was seriously just delicious! *swoon* The coffee was very very strong. But that’s not surprising.



After we ate, we tried to get a taxi back to the port, but the taxi drivers all refused to drive us. They told us to go to the end of Main Street to the bus terminal to get a shuttle to the port. The only thing the taxi drivers want to do is to do tours of the Rock, because it’s worth more money. They won’t drive you anywhere – it’s really shocking, I have to say! We asked multiple drivers and they all declined. It’s the only negative thing we experienced in Gibraltar. The taxi drivers were really useless and rude. We walked down to the bus terminal, but no one knew anything about a bus to the port. Again, useless. What is it with the transportation people here? Finally we gave up and walked. It was not a really long walk, but for mom, it was really tough, especially at that pace after a full morning of walking around.



We made it back to the ship at 1:10pm – by the skin of our teeth! Mom and Meri ran to Rockin Bar D while I ran to the cabin to grab the tickets! I walked into Rockin Bar D at 1:15pm exactly, and had time to flash our tickets to them and get our tour group numbers (33) before our group walked out the door! We had JUST made it! PHEW!!!

We headed out of the port, and to a little bus that was sitting in a lot outside.





Our tour guide was named Jill and she was a funny lady. Very British. I don’t know where she originated from, but I do know she spent 28 years touring the world on a yacht with her husband before they settled in Gibraltar. She didn’t have a very loud voice, so it was tough to always hear her if you weren’t right near her, but she was very informative about everything. The detail she gave was amazing! And she knew the answer to every question thrown at her, which was impressive!

The bus pulled out of the lot and headed for the cable car, our first destination. It took a few minutes to get to the cable car, and then Jill popped out to secure our group’s place in line. She said it would take a while because they were very busy that day, and they fit the tour groups in between the regular passengers. Ultimately, we waited an hour, which to me is a little ridiculous. It really cut into our touring time, and that annoyed me a lot. However, Jill was great at filling in the time with lots of information about life in Gibraltar, as well as the history of the little country. You could tell she wasn’t happy with it, but she tried to put a nice face on it.





Finally, after what felt like an eternity of waiting, it was our turn for the cable car. Yay! We all piled in, and started out on the quick journey to the top. The views were lovely, and I was snapping away, of course.



















The Magic




Finally we got to the top.





My favorite sign of the trip... do they have such a problem with this that they had to put up a sign?


Continued in next post...
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My Previous TripsMay 2016 - RCCL Baltic Cruise * Dec 2015 - Carnival Dream Caribbean Cruise (My 40th) * Mar 2015 - EPCOT Day * Nov 2014 - Carnival Elation Caribbean Cruise (Mom's 75th) * Feb 2014 - CBR / Disney Dream Bahamas Cruise (Meri's 8th) * June 2013 - Disneyland Paris * May 2013 - Disney Magic Transatlantic Cruise * Oct 2012 - Disneyland * Sept 2012 - Port Orleans Riverside (Royal Room) * Feb 2012 - Boardwalk Villas / Animal Kingdom Villas (Kidani Village) (Crissy's Bachelorette) * Oct 2011 - Port Orleans Riverside / Bonnet Creek * Feb 2011 - Caribbean Beach Resort (Pirate Room) / Animal Kingdom Lodge (Meri's 5th) * Nov 2009 - Port Orleans French Quarter (Mom's 70th) * Feb 2009 - Coronado Springs (Meri's 3rd) * Feb 2008 - Port Orleans Riverside (Meri's 2nd) * Sept 2006 - Boardwalk Inn * Prior to 2006 - Too many visits to count...
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Old 06-29-2013, 04:07 PM   #455
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Here’s where the backup at the bottom really affected us, and frustrated me – we were supposed to have 30 minutes at the top, but we only had 10 minutes to view the rock, shop for souvenirs, use the bathroom and get our snack. Seriously? I did not like being rushed, and I was frustrated with that, but it was what it was.



















With our tour we got a free drink and souvenir. We chose two cans of soda and a bottle of water, and then we got two little snow-globes and one pin. We picked up a few more souvenirs, and when it was time to pay, we found out that the credit card machine was down. Unbelievably, one of the monkeys had chewed through the wire that morning! The vendors were freaking out because this was the day a big American ship was coming through (ours) and it was to be a big money day… but so many people didn’t have cash on them, so they lost out on sales! Fortunately for us (and them), mom had plenty of cash (I had not brought enough, so I was going to be out of luck).

At this point it was time for us to continue on the tour, so off we went, saying goodbye to the Rock, and heading off to see St. Michael’s cave.

No surprise that Meri walked in the front with Jill, the tour guide


Beautiful scenery






We walked down to the caves, pausing to say hi to some monkeys, and see some beautiful views of the city and water.





A momma with her new baby, just a few days old!










The caves were neat, and I loved the little amphitheatre in there! The acoustics were fabulous, and I’d love to see a show in there! I'm sorry the photos are less than impressive in here... my camera was really getting an attitude... I'm sure it was user error, though...



















After the caves, we hopped into the bus and drove down a bit to the Siege Tunnels.



This guy was so relaxed




At this point it was a 500m walk up a fairly steep hill to get to the caves. Mom and another lady stayed behind, knowing their bodies weren’t up to it. Meri and I headed up, and after a few more panoramic photos, we began the tour.

The famed runway that you can drive right across! We never saw a plane land while we were there, to our disappointment!








In the tunnels










At certain points they had little recordings that you could listen to in various languages to give you information.






It was pretty interesting, but I admit that after a while, my energy flagged and my attention waned. Meri was long gone, and so halfway through the tour we bailed and headed back to the van. We stopped for a bathroom break, and then relaxed on the air conditioned bus until our group came back (about 10 minutes after us). At this point it was time to head back to the ship. It was 5:00pm and we were due back at 5:15pm.

This was an important phone box, but I forget why...


Out cold...


Since it was rush hour, there were traffic backups, but we managed to get back to the ship by 5:30pm.

Waving goodbye to Gibraltar




Continued again in next post...
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My Countdown Counting down to: My 40th Birthday Celebration
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My Previous TripsMay 2016 - RCCL Baltic Cruise * Dec 2015 - Carnival Dream Caribbean Cruise (My 40th) * Mar 2015 - EPCOT Day * Nov 2014 - Carnival Elation Caribbean Cruise (Mom's 75th) * Feb 2014 - CBR / Disney Dream Bahamas Cruise (Meri's 8th) * June 2013 - Disneyland Paris * May 2013 - Disney Magic Transatlantic Cruise * Oct 2012 - Disneyland * Sept 2012 - Port Orleans Riverside (Royal Room) * Feb 2012 - Boardwalk Villas / Animal Kingdom Villas (Kidani Village) (Crissy's Bachelorette) * Oct 2011 - Port Orleans Riverside / Bonnet Creek * Feb 2011 - Caribbean Beach Resort (Pirate Room) / Animal Kingdom Lodge (Meri's 5th) * Nov 2009 - Port Orleans French Quarter (Mom's 70th) * Feb 2009 - Coronado Springs (Meri's 3rd) * Feb 2008 - Port Orleans Riverside (Meri's 2nd) * Sept 2006 - Boardwalk Inn * Prior to 2006 - Too many visits to count...
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Old 06-29-2013, 04:23 PM   #456
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We had just enough time to drop our stuff in the stateroom before dinner. Phew! This was our last night in Parrot Cay. Taner saw that Meri had a stuffed monkey and he teased her frequently about cooking it for dinner, lol.



It was the Mediterranean menu tonight...


Mom got the Tapas (proscuitto, sundried tomatoes, marinated olives and parmesan cheese with grissini stick)


My lemon herb shrimp


My Egyptian Green Soup (spinach soup with garlic and coriander)


Mom got the "St. Sebastian" Pan Seared Chicken Breast (topped with sliced tomatoes and emmentaler cheese gratinee on creamy orecchiette pasta)


It was out of this world!

My Tuscan Style Thin Sliced Flank Steak with porcini mushrooms, pearl onions and garlic mashed potatoes served with a merlot reduction


I'm starving thinking about this. I ate every last bite, plus some of mom's pasta. I really worked up an appetite with all of that walking!

They were prepared with the sugar again!


We enjoyed watching Africa go by during dinner!


Wow, apparently I didn't take any pictures of dessert! What the heck?! I can tell you I got the black currant napoleon, and it wasn't my favorite. But geez, no photos??

After dinner, we headed to the show, which we knew we wanted to watch. It was Disney Dreams. Usually for the shows, we sit way in the back on the right. This time, though, we ended up sitting with Dale, Katrina and Timothy smack dab in the middle of the theatre. It turned out that they had 3 extra seats beside them, so they asked us to join them. As we made our way to the seats, we had to pass by about seven people who were on the outside of the row, who had to stand up to let us pass. The show hadn’t started yet, so it wasn’t a big deal, right? Wrong. One old guy positively reamed me for walking past him, then turned around and reamed mom. Called us rude and told us we should have gone from the other side. *eye roll* I just shook my head and chuckled and continued on, refusing to start a scene, but Mom gave him a quick (and fairly polite) piece of her mind, and then moved on to her seat (ok, I made her move on, whatever). He and his wife were STILL leaning forward and glaring at us and making comments for a few minutes after we were seated. Guess they were having a bad day. Poor things. Gotta just feel sorry for them and their traveling party. It's not like we bumped them or stepped on their feet or anything. We just politely scootched past them, and apologized as we were doing so! Oh well! Their issue, not mine!

The show was, of course, spectacular. I can see why it was voted the best show on all of the boats. I fully agree, it’s my favorite of all of the ones I'd seen!

After the show we went straight back to the cabin, where we found this appropriate guy hanging around...


I took a super hot bath, and then pulled all of the photos off of the camera, and charged the battery again. We were exhausted, and fell into bed pretty quickly.

Up next: Can you believe it?? Our last day on the ship!
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Old 06-29-2013, 04:56 PM   #457
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I am exhausted just reading about your day in Gibraltar I think Meri did really well to cope with all of that. Your dinner looked wonderful I am loving the food photos.
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Old 06-29-2013, 06:01 PM   #458
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Wow, what a day! You packed in a lot. But thank goodness you did as who knows if and when you'll return, right?
I can't believe the rude people in the theatre! My mom would have done the same thing.
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Old 06-29-2013, 07:34 PM   #459
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Wow, THAT was a full, exhausting day! I'm impressed that you made it to the show that night, but glad you did. Sorry for the rude people! If they didn't want to stand up, they should have filled in the seats in the center!

Gibraltar looks wonderful. Too bad there was such a long wait to get to the top of the rock. I understand the logistics of filtering in the solo passengers with tour groups, but it does seem like if you pay for a tour you shouldn't have to wait so long. It left you with way too little time at the top! Had you scoped out Jury's beforehand or did you just stumble upon it for those fantastic omelets? I'm absolutely amazed that your mom, and Meri too, kept up the pace the whole day.
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Old 06-29-2013, 08:12 PM   #460
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Great day, but definitely disappointing to be so rushed at the top! How worried were you about the macaques getting too close and friendly?
Dinner looked yummy.
Isn't Disney Dream amazing?!?! But what was up with the folks at the end of your row?!?! My thought is, if you don't want anyone walking in front of you, then MOVE IN TO THE MIDDLE rather than stopping right at the aisle. Jeesh.
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Old 06-30-2013, 01:12 AM   #461
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I am exhausted just reading about your day in Gibraltar I think Meri did really well to cope with all of that. Your dinner looked wonderful I am loving the food photos.
Meri was the best behaved of all of us, lol! I may have left out the parts of the day when mom and I were occasionally at each other's throats because we were tired and irritable. LOL! Throughout, Meri just had a sunny disposition.

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Wow, what a day! You packed in a lot. But thank goodness you did as who knows if and when you'll return, right?
I can't believe the rude people in the theatre! My mom would have done the same thing.
That was my thinking - who knows if and when we'll return, so we've got to see as much as we can! I'm typically not a commando vacationer, but for ports of call like this, I tend to want to cram in everything I possibly can.

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Wow, THAT was a full, exhausting day! I'm impressed that you made it to the show that night, but glad you did. Sorry for the rude people! If they didn't want to stand up, they should have filled in the seats in the center!

Gibraltar looks wonderful. Too bad there was such a long wait to get to the top of the rock. I understand the logistics of filtering in the solo passengers with tour groups, but it does seem like if you pay for a tour you shouldn't have to wait so long. It left you with way too little time at the top! Had you scoped out Jury's beforehand or did you just stumble upon it for those fantastic omelets? I'm absolutely amazed that your mom, and Meri too, kept up the pace the whole day.
It's hard with there only being 2 cable cars - and a SUPER long line of "regular" passengers. With each cable car holding I think something like 26 people (give or take), it was an endless process. There were only 2 tour groups in front of us (each filled up one cable car, as did our group) but it looked like they were doing "one tour group, four or five regular groups, one tour group, four or five regular groups" so it was really a long process. I think it should have been more like "one and one" trading off. That would get the tour groups going a little quicker, but not really be too bad for the "regular" passengers.

We just stumbled upon Jury's and really lucked out! I highly recommend them. They're fabulous!

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Great day, but definitely disappointing to be so rushed at the top! How worried were you about the macaques getting too close and friendly?
Dinner looked yummy.
Isn't Disney Dream amazing?!?! But what was up with the folks at the end of your row?!?! My thought is, if you don't want anyone walking in front of you, then MOVE IN TO THE MIDDLE rather than stopping right at the aisle. Jeesh.
At first I was really worried - I had forgotten to mention in here but this reminded me - while we were waiting for the cable car, we saw our tablemates (Suzanne and her kids) and they were telling us that a macaque jumped on Christian's head, and another grabbed Kiki's hair (in a non-harmful way, just funny and playful - they loved it) and at dinner that night they showed us photos. I think, though, as a rule, you have to sort of be putting yourself in the position to have that interaction (which is strongly discouraged). If you have any food whatsoever, you will likely be bothered. Ice cream and beverages are included in that.

But we didn't see any out of control or disconcerting (or scary) interactions whatsoever. Mostly we just observed that the little guys know very well that they are the center of attention, and they do things to maintain that attention (like jumping onto the huge binocular machines and rocking them back and forth, or posing for the pictures, or yanking your hair if you stick your head really close to them). As a rule, from what I saw, and from what our tablemates experienced, they weren't at all aggressive or scary. Just funny.
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Old 06-30-2013, 03:04 AM   #462
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Wow you certainly packed a lot into your day in Gibraltar. I keep changing my mind about a week away in spring 2014 - between Spain, including Gibraltar, and a cruise around the Baltic. Having read this, I'm now leaning back towards Spain again....
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Old 06-30-2013, 07:52 PM   #463
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Wow what a long day with lots of walking. Glad you made it to all your stops!
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Old 06-30-2013, 11:20 PM   #464
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Oh my gosh!!! What an amazing excursion that was!!! Those Monkeys are way too funny, dang I wish we were stopping there.
Meri on the bus sleeping, kids can sleep just about anywhere.
I think I am in love with your mom for giving the cranky old dude a polite piece of mind...........I would have so done the same

I'm still in shock that you didn't re book while onboard. So many people on my cruise, were on your's and re booked again for this year. That is saying something
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Old 07-01-2013, 12:15 AM   #465
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Wow you certainly packed a lot into your day in Gibraltar. I keep changing my mind about a week away in spring 2014 - between Spain, including Gibraltar, and a cruise around the Baltic. Having read this, I'm now leaning back towards Spain again....
It's a tough decision there! I can't wait to hear which way you end up going!!!

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Wow what a long day with lots of walking. Glad you made it to all your stops!
Thanks! Me too!

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Oh my gosh!!! What an amazing excursion that was!!! Those Monkeys are way too funny, dang I wish we were stopping there.
Meri on the bus sleeping, kids can sleep just about anywhere.
I think I am in love with your mom for giving the cranky old dude a polite piece of mind...........I would have so done the same

I'm still in shock that you didn't re book while onboard. So many people on my cruise, were on your's and re booked again for this year. That is saying something
LOL believe me, if I had a secure job I'd absolutely have rebooked while aboard! It was really a fabulous cruise! I miss it so much! I'm actually dreading the next update because it's the last day, lol!
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