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Hi!
I haven't posted on this in a while because as some of you may know I've just spent a week in the Bahamas and Disneyworld, Florida...the trip was AMAZING!! I'm so so SO glad I didn't turn it down now. I have to say I am beyond tired now I'm back because we weren't getting to bed until about 1:30am every night but it was worth it completely!
We left for the airport last Tuesday morning and flew from JFK to Orlando. When we got to Orlando we drove to our hotel which was a Disney one (yay!) and it was the movie on so our rooms were themed around Herbie but they also had Toy Story rooms and others. I shared a room with Julie and we had a double bed each, it was bliss! That first night we basically unpacked and then went for dinner in the foodcourt at the hotel. The kids had a couple of hours free time after that before bed so we just had to hang around and make sure they didn't get into trouble. They were told they weren't allowed in the pool that first night because the lifeguards weren't on duty but when they went to bed all the staff went swimming and let me tell you, there is no nicer feeling than diving into a pool in the Florida humidity! The next day we got up early to go to Magic Kingdom. There were only 2 female staff (me and Julie) and 29 girl campers compared to 3 male staff and only 24 boy campers so me and Julie had to have huge groups of girls to take around the parks. My group was 16 girls and they were so well behaved but it was still stressful making sure we had everyone and no one had got lost. It was a really fun day though and we went round with one of the boy groups and got on most rides. In the afternoon we left the park early to go back and swim because everyone was so just so hot. I think it's the hottest I've ever been in my life! The night time we ate dinner at the hotel and then went back to the park to see the parade and fireworks but it was cancelled because it started thundering and pouring down. Florida weather is so crazy! The next day was a similar set up except we went to Hollywood Studios. To be honest it was a bad park choice because there aren't many rides and the queues for the shows were about an hour and a half long each so we only went on about 3 things all day! I didn't get to see the American Idol experience which I was sad about! After we went back to the hotel and swam again it started raining so we decided to spend the evening there and played a song association game. My cabin won so we ordered them pizza to take back to their rooms while they packed and as their counselor they kindly invited me to join, I love my kids! haha
The next morning we left early for the cruise, it took about an hour and a half to drive to the port and then ages to dock as well so we never got on board until about 2pm. Our first stop was lunch and then the kids were allowed to hang by the pool and in the jacuzzis until our bags arrived in the night. The first day we basically unpacked and then let the kids shower and dress up for dinner. Dinners on the cruise were AMAZING...some of the best food I have ever eaten! It was all inclusive so we didn't pay for anything and the best part was you could order anything off the menu and as much as you wanted so we were getting more than one main course each to try different things and then more than one dessert, it was amazing! So my diet went out the window but I thought when else will I get this opportunity! The waiting staff were so polite and funny too and called me 'miss Hannah' the whole time, it was very posh! In the night we took the kids to the entertainment bar for karaoke and then to a teen disco room (which we weren't allowed in at all being over 18, not even to collect the kids so I had to pretend to be a camper to go and get them!) Once we got the kids to bed at about midnight we went to the casino for a bit but I saved my money which I was very proud of! I'm too cheap to gamble haha.
The second day was when the cruise stopped at Nassau. We spent the rning by the pool and then got off the ship at about 1pm for a few hours. We went around all the little stores there and the kids went to the market with all the knock off bags and other fake designed gear. It was fun watching my kids trying to barter for stuff though, they were pretty good! When we went back to the ship we let them shop for a bit and then again they showered and changed for dinner. That night we went back to the karaoke and my girls spent half the night trying to set me up with some random american guy who sang (who wasn't even my type!) by going over and telling him I was British. I could have killed them but they really make me laugh! One of my girls made friends with a random boy even though we told them not to talk to strangers and she's learnt her lesson now because they followed her EVERYWHERE on the cruise and bought her presents, it was so creepy! I had to tell him to leave her alone in the end and not follow the group! That night there was a party and a midnight buffet so we let the kids stay up and we had loads of fun on the dance floor and doing a conga around the top deck of about 300 people! The kids didn't get to bed until about 1:30am so we crashed out after that, we didn't have energy to stay up!
The third day we got up early for breakfast to get off at the Monarch of the Sea private island. It was nice but seemed very man made with hundreds of deck chairs, it was still lovely weather and a beautiful clean beach though. The water was SO blue it was so nice pretending to swim in it haha. The kids all got their hair braided but it cost about $80 so I wasn't bothering! When we got back the ship we had some down time in our rooms and once again got ready for dinner. The last night was so good! It was my camper's birthday so they brought out a cake and did a really funny dance for her. Then we thanked all the staff and they danced around the room while we spun our napkins around in the air to the music, it was the funniest 10 minutes of the whole trip as lame as it sounds none of the staff could stop laughing and the kids were looking at us like we were crazy! After dinner Mike (the trip leader) told us we had a meeting in a room on the cruise but we didn't know what it was about. When we got there they played a video for us all which told us that the Olympics had broken out at camp and had already begun (we have it every year at the end of camp). The 10th graders are the captains of teams in the Olympics and so they were SO annoyed that it had started without them since they're a main part. Anyway it turned out it was a 'fake out' Olympics start and they had big signs when we got back to camp with 'fake out' written over them. I personally thought it was really obvious they wouldn't start Olympisc without us but the kids are more gullable obviously! After we saw the videos the kids were in a mood because they didn't know it was fake and so we let them go cool off in the teen disco again! That night we had to pack so it was another late night.
The last day was when we flew home, our flight was Monday in the afternoon and it was delayed but only by about 45 minutes so it was fine. One of my campers and her twin brother live in Florida so rather than coming back tocamp for the last week they were picked up from the airport. I was absolutely gutted saying bye to her, she was such a great camper and with the older ones you make friends with them more than treat them like kids because they're only 5 years younger than me! It made me realise how horrible the last day of camp is going to be since I love my campers so much this year compared to last!
We didn't get back to camp until 11pm that night, I was so tired!! I still feel like I'm catching up on sleep now, I had the day off yesterday but me and my friend Kat had the laziest day ever and went to breakfast in our pyjamas it was great! I'm also enough tomorrow night and saturday day but I htink Olympics may break tomorrow night so I'm not going to leave camp. Can't believe they'res only 1 week left it's so sad!
Anyway I will finish this longest blog ever now, if you made it to the end well done but I doubt many people will have! Speak to you all soon, hope everyone is well :)
Love Hannah xxx
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