I woke up as Kara was looking out through the verandah curtains and asked “Where are we?” knowing it would be 100% water. She looked at me like “Really?” and gave me the look that I should come see for myself. OH MY WORD! It was the exact same view we had yesterday! We STILL hadn’t left Castaway Cay! An immediate & giddy party broke out in our stateroom. We were anxious & excited that this vacation had suddenly turned into an impromptu adventure!
We found out the breakfast buffet was open, as it isn’t open on regular debarkation morning. During breakfast another announcement was made and even the Cruise Director sounded shocked that we were still there! He said the wind was forecasted to calm later in the day, we would depart as soon as it was safe, and new Navigators were being printed to communicate all normal offerings would be provided on the ship. They were treating it as just another Day at Sea!
After breakfast we headed back to the room and were amazed to see the staff already returning luggage back to the rooms. This is when I knew I was with Disney, as they didn’t have to do that. We were also shocked at how fast the luggage was brought up, all by about 10 or 10:30am. We decided to take advantage of our extra day, so I proceeded to take a nap! (And no joke, on one of the TV stations they were playing “Gilligan’s Island”. The irony was not lost on us!) Feeling groggy I then hassled with the luggage to shower and change clothes.
Too soon it was lunch time, which I think we got room service again. Kara got on the ship computers, as we heard the fees were being waved and she emailed everyone at home about our situation. Around 4pm we noticed the engines had fired up and we were obviously trying to leave. It took nearly an hour to finally clear the dock and “parking lane” with the stationary and floating buoys.
So at this point we knew we’d be back to FL approximately 24 hours late. It was now time to reschedule the flight, which is when things began to unravel. We got in one of the two Guest Service lines to get a phone to the airline. (Remember, Verizon messed up our international plan, so we couldn’t use our cells.) After about 40 minutes we made it to the front of the line to promptly be told they were waiving the satellite charges and we could use our own cell. GRRR! Why didn’t they tell us this in the line?!
So we retrieve the phone and amazingly find a good signal in the hall at one of the major connecting points in the build of the ship. We got tired of sitting in the hall and proceeded downstairs, where we lost the signal. We try again, but the lobby is getting noisy as people gathered for early dinner, so just after getting through to the airline, the agent couldn’t hear me and the call dropped. We then tried again from the lounge and got through again just as the band started playing. The agent said I was breaking up and as we moved to get a better signal, again lost the call! GRRR! So we got in the other Guest Service line to use their phone to call the airline. The line was moving so slow, we had to give up and leave for dinner. During this time we were hearing rumors that because of the Presidents’ Day holiday and Valentine’s Day, all the Disney World hotels were booked. THIS is when Kara had a total meltdown (which is usually my thing). She ended up crying through dinner and neither of us ate much. After dinner we got in the line again, and at 10:30pm finally got through to AirTran. Amazingly, because of the situation, they re-booked us on the same flight we had the next day (Sunday) and didn’t charge us a single fee!
Now that we had a solid plan, we hurriedly re-packed our bags and tried to get to sleep (after more cookies of course)!
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