Are You Ever Coming Home?...No! I am playing with Wizards,Farkles & Sparkling Friends

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seas24by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

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After the show, it was time for bed. Tomorrow would be our first port day and I needed to get some sleep so I would be ready for our busy day! I made Claire turn off the TV…this time her doing it, as the other night when I did it, I didn’t do it in a way where she could pick the movie back up where she left off and she ended up rewatching the whole beginning again. LOL

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Day 7, July 1,2017. Aruba

 

Today we would be heading to our first port…Aruba! I have never been to Aruba before, so I was excited. My cousin who I sailed with in Oct. was actually just here about a week or so ago. In fact, she flew in the day the Fantasy was here on the 11 night cruise. She messaged me as soon as she landed and told me they flew over the Fantasy.

 

We were supposed to be in Aruba today till 5:45 PM, but it had been announced the other day that we would now be staying till 1 AM. Now we didn’t have plans to do anything in port at night, but I thought it was pretty cool.

 

I got up early after another night of creaking and went up top to scope out where we were. We weren’t there yet, so I went around and took some pictures of the adult area.

 

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It was very windy and they had the front roped off so you couldn’t go up there.

 

I thought we would be closer to land.

 

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You can just barely see it.

 

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Like I said, it was windy and a little rocky too. You can see the water in Satellite Falls sloshing all over.

 

 

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I went back and got Claire up and ready and we headed for breakfast. We found whole mangos and I asked how to cut them and they told me they could do it….then pulled out a bowl with mango already cut and scooped a bunch in a bowl. Claire and I love mango, so that was a big hit.

 

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And we were coming in to dock now too.

 

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We walked out on deck and took pictures through the glass.

 

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We positioned ourselves where we could see better and watched.

 

 

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The area we docked was not all that pretty, but you didn’t have to go far to find shopping.

 

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We went back to the room to gather our bag and then headed to DLounge to meet Jeanne and kids. We were doing the same excursion today… the 4X4 Natural Pool Adventure.

 

We got signed in. We all wore bathing suits with a coverup (since swimming in the natural pool is what we would be doing) and sandals or flip flops. We then were told we could not have open toed shoes? What? We are going swimming? They insisted we could not have them and made us change our shoes…which meant I had to huff and puff back to the room to get shoes for Claire and I. This could have been a problem as it was not listed on the explanation and what if I didn’t bring a closed toed shoe?

Jeanne’s girls ran back for her and they were much faster than I. Of course after we were there for a while waiting, they no longer were enforcing this rule and many people wore sandals. UGH!

 

We grabbed some towels and put them in our bag and then when our group was called, we headed off together off the ship.

 

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And over to some buses. There was a regular bus and an open air bus…we quickly ran to the regular bus. LOL.

 

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Our view from the bus.

 

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We then were taken a short distance to the 4x4 place.

 

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We would be riding in the jeeps.

 

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They told us to use the restroom and we all went over andluckily we were the first few in and out.

 

One guy….and I can’t remember his name anymore….startedtelling us about the excursion and how it worked and that we would be able topick a driver and they liked to keep the groups at about 8 per jeep. So he started introducing the drivers andpeople would volunteer to go with each one.

 

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Jeanne said “Let’s have that main guy” and we went overwhile he was still introducing drivers and told him we would like to be in hisjeep and we had 6 of us in our group. Hetold us ok and to stand off to the side.

 

Isn’t she sweet? Hahahaha

 

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It then came down to us, another group of about 6 and asingle lady. He told the lady to standwith us, and then he wasn’t sure what to do with the other group. He wasn’tsure why they hadn’t gone with a driver yet. I think he ended up splitting them up and putting them in other jeeps.

 

We then were told which jeep to go to.

 

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Nick and the single lady were in the front row, Kelsey,Emily, and Claire were in the middle row, and Jeanne and I in the last.

 

We were told to buckle up as some parts were going to bevery bumpy. We looked at other jeeps andwe were so glad we picked this driver. Some had as many as 14 people in then and they were piled in shoulder toshoulder. Really you could fit 3 across each row comfortably, 4 would bepushing it.

 

We took off and our guy was the leader.

 

 

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I took some pictures as we bounced along. This house had a HUGE boulder in the yard. It appeared to be attached to the house…was it hollow with a room in it?

 

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Dominos!

 

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I hadn’t expected Aruba to be so desert like. Lots of sandy areas and cactus all over the place.

 

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We did comment on the houses here. They were much nicer and better maintained than many of the ones we have seen on other Caribbean islands.

 

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I had to take a picture of this tree/bush as it had Christmas lights strung all over on it. We have a running joke at our house about Christmas lights being up all year long….as I do! I hate putting them up, so I string them across the front and leave them year round and just fix them each year if needed….though last year I did take them down and put a new set up…..and when I came home from this trip they were all down across the front porch as we had had a major wind storm. Hahahaha

 

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I don’t know what this was, but it looked pretty cool.

 

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Now it was still really hot out today, but it was windy in Aruba and with the moving vehicle it was even windier, so we felt fine.

 

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Another nice looking home. Like I said, there seemed to be a lot of nicer homes and most of the time the yards were kept clean too.

 

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We then pulled over to a stop and everyone else did as well. Our guy told us that one of the jeeps broke down and that we may have to have those people ride with us. Bummer! So we waited a bit. Then we saw a jeep coming down the road, filled to the max but he just let us out and off we went. We did a little happy dance that we didn’t have to share our jeep.

 

 

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Here’s a sight you don’t see every day.

 

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There were goats running all around and we had slowed down enough that I could capture a few pictures.

 

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These little ones were so cute.

 

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This house was not one of the nicer ones…but I totally laughed at the dog barking at us from the wall. But at least they kept their clutter behind the wall…..in front it looked very nice.

 

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We then pulled into the park where we would drive to the natural pool. Our guide stopped and said that it would be bumpy. He warned us not to say no…and he would assume we would be saying GO! And then he would go faster. LOL. He told us this drive was not to punish us, but this was his job to get us there….Uh Oh….this is going to be a crazy ride….everyone check your seat belts.

 

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Bumpy doesn’t even describe the ride. It was insane! We were flying all over the place.

 

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The road to the pool was not really a road….more of a path.

 

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With big giant rocks and pot holes.

 

 

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You can kind of see the path in the distance.

 

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I was glad we were in front as all the other jeeps were getting our dust clouds!

 

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The water looked so beautiful in the distance.

 

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The drivers were having way to much fun driving here too. Some would run up on hills and then back down. Some would do a little more off roading than what the current path was. We had fun, but keep in mind, this is not for the faint of heart…and it was not really described that way either.

 

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Isn’t this view gorgeous?

 

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We passed some people on horses too.

 

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The ride was getting worse as we went…bumpier and bumpier.

 

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But the views were just amazing….hard to take pictures though with all the bumps.

 

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And finally we arrived!!!

 

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We were told the rules and given snorkels and vests and then we had to walk down this mountainous hill to get to the pool.

 

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The view from the top.

 

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See the waves? This how the water seemed to be everywhere we went in Aruba. I am not sure if it that rough on all sides of the island, but it was really rough here.

 

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We made it down and they told us to set our stuff down and then walk over the pool…which you had to climb rocks to get to. This may look like sand….but it’s tiny pebbles that are super sharp on feet that are blistered.

 

 

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I was stupid and set my things too far away and then attempted to walk. I am not a barefoot girl. I could never walk on stones as a kid and I still can’t. I regretted it half way and thought about going back to my stuff to bring it closer, but I just kept going. I made it over where we had to hold on to rocks and climb through to get to the pool. That wasn’t as bad as some of the rocks were smooth, but some were pointed with sharp edges. My regret was not bringing my water shoes this trip.If I ever come back, water shoes would be a must here. I was actually surprised the pathway wasn’t any better or smoother with all the people who come here.

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We finally made it to the water and I plunged in. It was a little cold, but we got used to it fast. I did some snorkeling and took pictures off and on. I will state right now that I forgot to put new rainX on my camera lens as that helps keep water drops off of it. They usually slide off or come off with a shake. It’s been about a year since I last had done it and you can tell. I have a LOT of pictures with spots in them and sadly I didn’t always clean off the camera later and there are spots on a lot of future pictures from this trip. Sorry…..

 

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The water was deep, but there were spots where you could stand on boulders…but the current in here was sloshy and often you couldn’t stand for long.

 

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The ocean would crash on the rocks that faced it and we would get big splashes in every so often.

 

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See the nice water spots?

 

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Cleaning my goggles

 

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We had one of the guides take our picture….he wasn’t veryg ood. Hahaha.

 

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Some people started jumping off a big rock….You have got to be crazy to do that….and then Kelsey and Emily went to do it. Hahaha.

 

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I swam around while I waited for them to jump.

 

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There goes Kelsey!!!

 

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Crazy girl!

 

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And Emily

 

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They did it a couple of times and I think Nick did it once too.

 

Jeanne took a picture of us.

 

 

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And one of the girls got us too.

 

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We saw that we would be leaving soon, so Jeanne and I decided to try and get a head start to climb out before it got full of people. The plan was good in theory…but we got behind a lady who just had a lot of trouble walking on flat surfaces…so forget about trying to climb out of here. She was so incredibly slow and she had guides helping her along the way. Of course she seemed to stop every time I was on a sharp stone and the pain was horrid. If I could have walked out fast, it would have been fine, but I couldn’t get around her. I think some of the guides thought I needed help too and I told them no, I just couldn’t move till this lady did.

 

Once I got to the flat ground with all the pebbles I could barely walk though. I had Claire go and get my shoes once I got half way so I could make it back. I have such horrid feet and those little buggers killed me.

 

We dried off and headed back up the steps. I knew I would be slow and Jeanne said she would be too. Amazingly I think I beat her up, but I think I started before her too.

 

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When we got back up, we were given water and a granola snack bar to eat. We dropped off our snorkeling gear on the side of the truck and then loaded ourselves back in for the trek back. Our guide told us that our drive out won’t be so bumpy because we now knew how it was and it will just seem like less bumps. Oh good!

 

We took off.

 

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And bumped along…and it did not feel better….it seemed worse! Really bad. I made a comment about how this thing has no shocks….it was throwing us all over.

 

All the trucks were playing around and climbing hills and being silly.

 

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We went up a hill and slammed on the breaks and all the other trucks started going around us and honking. I thought it was just in fun, but then we backed off the hill and went a little further and stopped. Our guide came out and said we had to get out as we had a flat tire. Kelsey and Emily said they heard a big pop quite a ways back and I bet that was our tire and why it was so freaking bumpy.

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And it was FLAT!

 

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We thought we were going to have to ride in another jeep, but nope, they were going to change it right there. We stood around and took pictures while we waited.

 

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They did a lot of standing around and talking, but then they all pushed the truck over a bit and one guy got under to get the spare. It was comical.

 

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I course I missed the picture of them actually pushing, but Jeanne caught part of it.

 

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Soon we had a new tire and were back to bouncing around. Whoa!!!! Wait! I am REALLY bouncing….I forgot to put my seatbelt on! Shoot. I had my phone in one hand and camera in the other and trying to buckle while bouncing. Claire and Jeanne were sure I would fly out. I handed off my phone and finally got buckled in and was safe again.

 

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We were off to our next stop…the natural bridge…which also would have bathrooms…..something I was looking forward to more than the bridge at the moment.

 

We laughed at the name of this store.

 

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We passed the Ostrich Farm, which looks like a cool place to visit.

 

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As we headed towards the natural bridge we got some great views of the ocean.

 

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Almost there!

 

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We pulled in and I shot out to use the bathroom. I was doing the pee pee dance at this point. I ran inside and there was a desk and they were charging $1 to use the bathrooms. I asked if I could pay on the way out andt hey said yes and I made my way in. When I came out, I handed over my dollar to another lady and she didn’t seem to understand why. I guess I could have gone for free. LOL.

Now this was annoying, but I was ok with paying…I had to go. But this is not something Disney likes. If they are going to charge for the bathroom, it is supposed to be told to them so they can note it in the description…or they include it in the price. There should NOT be extra charges like this on any Disney excursion. Disney did take note (so I was told by others later) of the excursions that did not follow Disney policy. These ports are new, or visited not often by Disney and they can only be improved with feedback.

 

I came out and found everyone and the guides were giving them a talk and it was just finishing up.

 

Claire told me that the “big” natural bridge actually wasn’t there anymore. It had collapsed a few years ago…but the small one was still there….again not something I saw mentioned in the description. In fact I am almost positive it said we would see the big and small one…..and I just went to look to see if it is still listed and it is. “•Make a 20-minute photo stop at the Natural Bridge and the Baby Bridge.”

 

I also believe that we were supposed to stop at one other stop and we never did. I know we were running late and we did get back later than we were supposed to, but also our time in port had been extended till 1AM, so it was no big deal being late.

 

We headed off to take some pictures.

 

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And here is the baby bridge.

 

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The water beyond was rough but beautiful.

 

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