Hanging out, waiting for our breakfast slot. Everything is now out of the room and our main luggage is in Disney hands.

We weren’t able to do online check in (the app gave a cryptic message indicating that something prevented online) so we’ll see when we get to the airport what’s up. Worst case we end up on our original time frame and fly out tomorrow. I expect it is just an issue with their systems as we got the confirmation emails for the flight change.

On the bus and soon headed for heathrow

Thinking it may make sense to revive my never really used twitter account. I feel like I ought to at least try the platform and see what it can so

Last night on board, heading for the airport I’m the morning and flying home shortly thereafter.

Sad to see the vacation end. Happy to be heading back to other challenges. Tired but not yet giving in to it. Currently on the top deck with my camera for one last walk around. A few last pictures, mostly redundant but holding onto vacation for a little bit longer while I can.

Been reading opengl 3d rendering docs today. Lots of things have changed since last time I looked at 3d programming. Mostly for the better, but it is clear that getting anything at all working is now more complex that it was.

Have had interesting history discussions at the dinner table for much of this  cruise. Hoping that some of that may continue over digital connections having exchanged contact information. I was already planning to get more use out of this blog so I am hoping that may help. With the commenting capability, it should be possible to hold a slow motion conversation here.

Going bicycling on Guernsey in a bit. Last excursion and mostly packed up (thanks to Lorna staying on top of things). Sad to see this trip ending, but it leaves me wanting another 🙂 Hoping for exciting things to come.

Got to keep blogging after I get home and clean up the site (particularly the landing page) to make the sites work better. I’ve got a basic idea for what I’ll do. Also need to stay focused on interesting projects and not waste time.

Lots to be done, lots can be done. Looking to let my creative side loose more.

Going to read some more opengl docs on the flight home. Things have changed a lot since last time I looked at 3d. Much more programmable pipelines and less fixed function triangle meshes. Add in some sqlite and I’ve got a few things to play with.

Currently at Heathrow going through British Airways musical help desks. It appears that when we changed our day and upgraded to economy plus over the phone (because their system didn’t permit the change to be made electronically) they messed something up. The eticket associated with the original flight didn’t get registered properly with the new flight. Now they seem to be terribly understaffed on their phone lines (and their local software seems very limited). They say that the only way to fix it is on the phone with a remote staffer. Seems as if they have a small fraction if the folks they need on that end.

Still standing here and two people in total have made it to the desk. The British air agents behind the desk seem to be spending as much time consulting with each other (inadequate training I’d guess) as they do resolving actual issues.

At the rate this is moving, they need chairs (or perhaps cots) on the queue.

The morning of our last day. Feet hurt, but still sad. At Guernsey with a bicycle tour in the afternoon. Overcast with bits of sun breaking through. Just finished my deck photo walkaround for the morning. Heading down to wake lorna.

Long day but a good day. Back on the ship at 10pm sharp and they kept the buffet open for us. We had been prepared to wait for breakfast so it was a nice treat.

We stopped on the way back for a restroom break and at first it looked as if the rest area we sropped at had a non-working ladies room (the mens was pretty much a construction area, but open). In the end they let folks use the facilities even though they were a bit of a mess.

In the final approach to the docks, our bus driver took a short cut and got back a few minutes before the other bus. We won so everyone cheered.

A day at eurodisney. Had fun, very tired, I still vastly prefer Orlando. Heading to bed and will try to post more tomorrow. Sad to see a wonderful trip ending, but definitely ready to get back to real life for a while.

Early one here for our last big excursion. Heading for euro disney today. Long day, but should be very interesting to see this park.

More strange mickey mouse cartoons as we wait for clearance to go ashore. Slightly overcast at the moment, but looks like it could be,a pretty decent day.

Definitely thinking about technical stuff and home related things so probably a good time to be headed home. Going to miss the ship and the new places even so.

This is the point in the vacation where the end is becoming real. This is our last at-sea day. We’ve had all of our b ritain, scotland and ireland. Looks like Lorna needs to have three desserts tonight (three very, very Lorna choices on the menu). Last night they made us a special curry that Captain Richard had gotten started…unfortunately he was not at the table as he was called away for a meeting so we asked the servers to see if some could be sent down to his cabin as a sort of special room service. We’ll see tonight whether that happened or not.

Quiet day at sea. Mixology class at 2PM (though more of a driking class than a mixing class as unlike the one of the dream, we mostly were told about the drinks and then drank them in this one). Didn’t eat lunch till after the class so I was a bit wobbly by the end.

Packed up most of the things we won’t be needing for our last two excursions. Le Havre and euro-disney land tomorrow (long day) and then Guernsey the day after.

We will be home a day earlier than planned as we won’t be staying at a hotel near the airport before flying home. On balance it works out better to just get home…and avoid juggling the luggage to some place near the airport and then back the airport on the following day.

I think having the weekend to recover will be a very good thing. Trying to get back into the stream of things at work after a long flight and jet lag would be pretty brutal.

Got our passports back today.

Currently sitting at a table on deck 9 of the magic, looking out through the glass over the open sea with no land in sight. Quiet, sunny and not too chilly at the moment. Lorna wants to see the show at 6:30 and as with all dinners on this cruise we eat at 8:30. I believe thta only one of our dining companions will be with us tonight as the other           two have a palo reservation.

It was a bit choppy last night.  Iwoke up around 4:30 and had a hard time getting back to sleep with the motion of the boat. Quieter seas now…Lorna likes the rocking, but it still makes me a bit queasy.

We saw ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ in 3D this morning and Lorna an I liked it a lot. Visually it was wonderful and the story got the job done.

We saw the redesigned Cinderella stage show tonight (and saw the Tangled show earlier in cruise) and both were a lot of fun.

Starting to think about the post-cruise era and things work and technical related (also making sure I’ve got things I want to read loaded on the tablet for the long flight home). Disney certainly provides a seamless and delightful experience. Had a blast last night at the animator’s palate where they have every guest draw a character before they get their menu and order. Later in the evening they animate the drawings on the screens. I’m pretty sure I could duplicate what they did and may take a shot at it for fun once I get home. Need to read through OpenGL stuff on the flight and think a bit…

Perfect weather for it. Cold, windy and dense fog blowing past. They handed out blankets to anyone on deck who wanted one. Fun but would definitely been more fun if it was warmer.

Beautiful day. Suny as we headed out. Now smack dab in a fog bank offshore. More later. Great shots from the bow as we passed out of the harbor and past several light houses.

At the sock and now in group 23 waiting to head out. Saw a punch and Judy show while waiting for the train yesterday. Seeing really strange mickey cartoons while we sit here.

Raining a bit in dublin. Had to dry my camera a bit after my morning walk around shots from deck 10  very industrialized port here in dublin. Ships, cranes and containers un all directions.