Palma de Mallorca and The Return From Drydock

Kaleigh and me at Gaudi's Mallorca Cathedral

Whhaaaa??  What is Palma de Mallorca???  

A quick cone with Ivo after
a port morning Princess Gathering

This one's kinda like Funchal, Madeira -- an island that is technically part of Portugal.  Mallorca is an island that is technically part of Spain.  We visited this island twice, both times being on the only two 4-day cruises in the Mediterranean.  All of our other cruises in the Mediterranean were a minimum of seven days.  What a 4-day cruise means is, cast members have to pack as much entertainment into four days as the other cruises held in seven days.  These short cruises also mean a much different cliental porting out of Barcelona than that to which we had grown accustomed.  In short...4-day cruises were dreaded.  I'll leave it at that.

Because of the little time we spent here, I don't really have much to tell about Palma.  But if nothing else, it was beautiful!  

Beautiful Emma and bustling Palma

This pastry shop is famous for a reason! 

Dancing on the Ring of Kerry

Believe it or not, we've finally finished all of the Mediterranean ports from my contract with Magic 30 on Disney Cruise Line.  After our summer in the "Med," as we called it, we had a break in our contract where the Magic underwent a massive makeover in a 5 week renovation known as a drydock.  During this time, I met one of my best friends, Bria, in Ireland;

Exploring the Ring of Kerry with this Irish Beauty, Bria

my sister, Victoria, in Turkey for a few weeks;

What a happy reunion this was!

and my ship roommate, Carissa, and her Portuguese boyfriend, Rodolfo, in Portugal; then headed back to Cadiz, Spain to re-embark on the Magic for the remaining three months of my contract.  

Cherishing the last sunset from land in Cadiz, Spain

Much to our surprise, the ship was still in the "has to get worse before it gets better" stage.  Our floating home was unrecognizable inside.  There were contractors everywhere and they were anything but gentlemen.  Unfortunately, they were with us for the transatlantic back to Florida, and as a result, my fellow cast members and I tried to avoid the crew mess like the plague.

"Are you sure we should be re-embarking yet?"

Because there were no guests on board and most of our rehearsal/performance spaces were still undergoing renovation, there really wasn't anywhere to go but our postage stamp cabins.  That is, unless you had a hardhat and loved being catcalled and whistled at.  This was when I learned the true meaning of cabin fever.

Goodbye Europe!  See ya real soon.

But in the end, the overall outcome was a beautiful updated interior of the Disney Magic.  The ship definitely had its problems from cut corners, but hey, at least it looked nice, right?  

Here's a little glimpse of my cabin in case you are curious what they are like.  No one likes seeing themselves on camera, butI suppose I'll deal with it for your benefit.