Oh dang! Almost forgot!
After mixology everyone went to the big staircase in the atrium for a group pic. Pam gave everyone light-up cruise mouse ears as a fish extender gift so we all put them on and piled onto the stairs for a picture. It was sooooo cool. I bought the picture in case any of the ladies need a scan. When I brought it home and showed it to my guys they all said the same thing: "Wow! There were a lot of you!" Yep. I'm so proud! Charter members of the unOfficial WDWMagic Dream Girls Crew!
It was a relaxing day at sea. At-sea days are the next best thing to Castaway Cay. That's not a lie!
Unfortunately, the best of days on the best of cruises have to come to an end. I spent waaaay too much time repacking my suitcases and getting ready for dinner. A whole line of us were out on the verandah to take in the final sunset. It was beautiful. I enjoyed that serene moment with all the girls. It was a good closing moment for sure. And, of course, I loved the way the light and colors played with the clouds.
Time for our final dinner at Animator's. So perfect to close with this one. While waiting for the restaurant to open an alarm sounded and this emergency door slid shut suddenly. Never seen that happen before.
I think someone might've pushed the button on the wall. I snapped a quick pic of the door shut to show Tracey. There's a little button on the wall that you can see up high right next to the door. I think this must open & shut the door.
So the restaurant doors opened and we all the girls started filing to our tables. A bunch of the cabana gals were sitting at one table so I thought I'd sit with them since I hadn't seen much of them today. As soon as I sat they all jumped up and ran to the other big table. I was like:
Do I stink or something???
I started to feel a little crushed
but then I just shrugged it off and figured whatever.
Tammy & Missy sat down near me so that was pretty cool. Remember the giggle fest pre-cruise??? Good times!
I sat here for the final dinner.
So we're sitting here and dinner is beginning with drink orders and such. If anyone has ever dined in Animator's on the Dream and/or Fantasy you'll be familiar with the Crush show format. Basically Crush "swims" around from tank window to tank window and converses with different diners sorta like when he converses with kids in Turtle Talk with Crush. Well, I was sitting by the tank window. Guess who talked to me?! I forget the conversation exactly and I so wish I had a video of it. Basically Crush referred to me as "Cool Kelly". Of course he wanted to know who I was cruising with.
Here we go.
"27 friends, all ladies"
"You're here with 27 ladies??? Where's your families?"
"We left them at home. It's ladies ONLY."
Crush's face did this --->
It was JUST like that!
Then Crush started calling out to the rest of the dining room: "Dudes! Dudes! All you dudes out there! There's 27 ladies over here! You don't want to miss this!"
It was hilarious! I was dying laughing!
So then Crush said his goodbyes. It was sooooo fun. I don't think we could've had a better interaction.
Theeeeeeen, the next big surprise happened. All the girls from the other table(s) came and gathered around our table. I'll save the sappy speach part but they collectively thanked Tammy & I for pulling the whole thing together, yada yada yada. They handed each of us a gift bag with a small plush Minnie and a thank you card that contained a Disney gift card. When I looked at the card they had each written some sweet personal message of thanks and signed it. All of them. The inside of the card was completely covered.
Aaaaaand then I did this.
Again. Dang girl genes. I told them they broke me and made me leak.
Cannot say enough how much that moment meant to me. They didn't have to do that. It was so thoughtful. Much love to all my girls out there. There's none better.
This totally explains the jumping up and running to the other table. They were hiding the presents. LOL! Another highlight for the night: I didn't stink! It's the little things, y'all.
After dinner we ran to Shutters to make our photo purchases. I would've thought this late in the evening the ship would be dying down. Nope!
Pretty sure I did the old lady routine and returned to the room for the night. Made my final prep for tomorrow's debarkation, stowed my final stuff, and off to dream-land before midnight.