Disney Cruise: Day 2

The first full day of our cruise, we slept in late. A glorious, relaxing treat! We decided that unlike previous vacations, often accompanied by our commando vacationer children, we'd relax and zone out on our trip. That was our mission!

We slept in, and for lunch headed to Palo, the fancier Disney restaurant that requires a reservation and $20 per person. The server takes you on a tour of the food options: seafood, egg and pasta dishes, cheese tables, salads, fruits. . . .



. . . and desserts . . . it's eye-dazzling and overwhelming! And indulgent!



Next, when we could walk again with our increased weight and bulk and girth, without tipping over the ship, we wandered around, meandering to and fro, photographing Doug . . .




. . . . stuff  (Disney wouldn't like me calling their "art" "stuff", but there are now Disney Swat teams patrolling my blog :)  ). . . .




. . . . and me, reclining in the thoughtfully positioned portholes. . . .





But wait!  Doesn't all that meandering to and fro work up a thirst?  Why, it's time for the wine tasting!  Being saddened by pathetically small things, I was saddened that I didn't this time get a tiny little "wine-tasting" pin to attach to my lanyard.  What does one even do with a wine tasting pin, wear it proudly about Grand Forks?  I don't know; but I wanted one again. . . .




So, we seemed to be accomplishing our mission of zone out relaxing during the day at sea, but we weren't quite ready to crash on a deck chair just yet, so we decided to caffeinate ourselves before sitting with our book-laden Nooks by the Quite Cove pool. And right by the pool is this little Quiet Cove Cafe, where these cheerful servers recommended two fancy coffees with all manner of tasty liqueurs stirred into them.









So, some hours later, after reading and snoozing by the pool, we managed to have dinner at our 8:15 seating in Triton's, the dining room for the evening.  And further challenge to our bodies with the desserts of the night.





Unbelievably, we were still walking at the end of all this, and managed to find our way to Deck 4, where you can circle the ship a few times on their walking/jogging path. Definitely needed by this point!

Disney Magic Western Carribean Cruise: First of Five Nights

I love how relaxed and tranquil Doug looks now! I don't think you can actually relax on a vacation until you've got all the logistics of getting there finally accomplished, and this is The Moment: (Maybe. Maybe it's still "Fine! Take the picture already!" sigh)





See all that white stuff on Miami Beach? NOT snow!



The little pilot boat cracked me up! At first, I thought it was going to "sketch" Mickey Ears, but that would have probably been over-the-top! But I was impressed with the circle!



Only as we pulled away from Miami did it look cloudy. None of the coming days were cloudy--just beautiful, sunny, warm days! Perfect vacation weather! Apparently, our usual weather curse took a vacation this trip!







And at dinner: Yummmmmm! Dessert! We couldn't decide, so ordered the sampler of three desserts.



Our dinner the first night was at Parrot Cay.  Disney rotates you, with your same table-mates and servers, from dining room to dining room over the course of the cruise. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this cruise was the dinners, and not because of the food. The Disney Master Plan assigned three other couples as our table mates: one from New Jersey, one from Canada, and one from London. No children--which really does work better when you are not traveling with children, and all close in age. Good food, some wine, and great conversations! I loved the differing perspectives and life experiences! And hearing the London Sandra learn to imitate New Jersey's Lori and John's "you'll swim with da fishes!"

And then after dinner, we got to watch the movie "Lincoln" again. Even though we were exhausted, and I'd already seen it, it was absolutely riveting the second time through, after having read Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals."

And Now, We Interrupt this Winter Weather Snit for a Disney Cruise!

A month ago, we got back from one of the real treats of our life, getting to go on a Disney Cruise, in March! This anticipation of an escape from the winter doldrums keeps us going during the long November, December, January, February, March, April (and yes, often even May) months of winter.

It took me awhile to post photos, because the only souvenir that made it back with us was a nasty, lung-wretching cold that far surpassed any other cold of my adult life. And only now am I feeling energy to call upon my brain neurons to post. . .

This first shot is from a hotel window in Miami. We stayed at the Port of Miami Holiday Inn, just across the port. It's nothing fancy, just expensive, and very convenient to the port. We flew in a day early, because with a cruise in the winter, its a very good idea to allow a whole day for weather snafus. And with 12 hours of flights and airports, including one trek across an open field of snow to get from the parking lot to the airport entrance, a day of recovery time is a Very Good Idea.

And it gave me plenty of time to press my lens against the hotel window, using a slow shutter speed, to get light trails from the cars below:



Waiting in the Port of Miami just prior to embarkation is an exercise in containing excitement. You are so close, and have made it past so many of the Things That Can Go Wrong in travel!



Once you board, the first stop is the first buffet. This is your first chance to have Choice Overload of picking out all kinds of tasty things to sample. I've been trying to follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and had decided that on this trip, I'd eat whatever I felt like, and assess its impact. I noticed that for the most part, I genuinely wanted the choices that were still within the Diet guidelines. There was enough that was not, however, and although I felt the impact, it was not disastrous. I was very aware, however, that the effect might be being masked by medication, but all went well.



After the buffet is when you drag your carry-on luggage to your cabin and are allowed to check into the room. I find that the only reason to really keep much luggage with us at that point is because I'm just not willing to let me photographic equipment stray to far from my hands and sight.





Not too long after unpacking in our cabin, it's time for the mandatory life boat drill. Strangely, we don't have to put the life jackets on, just watch how it's done, and even though I'm one of those people who pay attention to the safety stuff on airplanes (and read my vehicle owner's manual), I missed the life jacket demonstration! I must have just spaced it out, watching some little kids torture their parents with sibling rivalry. Ooops! After all the Carnival Cruise line trouble, and seeing Titanic, I really did want to pay attention!



Time to check out the pools and decks!





And to check out a tropical drink-of-the-day! I'd thought we'd order the drink-of-the-day each day, but there really are just too many choices!




And before long, the Embarkation Party! Here's something really important to note: No one is wearing parkas or gloves! Or racing AWAY from the outdoors! . . . . *sigh. . . . it's another world!

Husband Loses It over the Weather in North Dakota (understandably!)

"We're in the f*ing suckhole here!"  This is what my mild-mannered, sweet-natured  good-humored husband said today.  Because of our f*ing weather. I don't disagree with him in the slightest. Enough already!  30 degree weather, snow, and the ugliest, bleakest, greyest landscape you can imagine, while the rest of the state gets to have 50 degree weather.

And Montana gets to have mid-60s, double our weather!

So, imagine how I feel about the following photos, taken a whole month ago, NOT IN MY BACKYARD!

*sigh* And we had to come back. .

Take me away

I think I could even climb aboard this plane. . . .if I would be guaranteed that it would take me away from here to someplace warm. Someplace significantly warmer than 17 degrees below zero. Take me away, Disney!

And when the snow melts away. . . Oh, Wait! This is Castaway Cay!

At risk of giving you some kind of psychic whiplatch after all that hoar frost, I thought I'd send you back to Castaway Cay, the last day of our Disney Cruise. Do you think the ship could use some repairs?



Remember the little video clip from a few days ago, where everyone was staring intently at the water? Here's a shot of the search for starfish in the water. Notice those clouds moving in, as Mother Nature decided we'd had reached our quota of two hours of sunshine and warmth for the winter. . .



The Mickey-ites waving "goodbye" to us:



And a sunset:

Castaway Cay

Being the astute readers that you are, you will no doubt recognize that these videos are NOT of North Dakota!

On our last day of the cruise, in Castaway Cay, we were treated with several hours of warmth. It wasn't quite warm enough to go snorkeling. . . or even put a swimsuit on, but we actually wore shorts and got our feet in the water.

Serenity Bay is the little beach Disney has for the adults. I saw all these adults standing in their water, staring at their feet. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer and had to go see what was going on and it was so cool!

In this first, quite short, video, you'll see me imperiously demand that Doug come into the water with his video camera. I certainly didn't want to take my Nikon into the water. Oh no! But Doug so very nicely obliged and got this footage:

We don't have wild-life like this in North Dakota! I took my life in my hands and touched them!

And this is just a little more of the same, but where I'm rather enthralled by the little critters . . .

Day 5 of the Disney Cruise: Grand Cayman & Sea Explorer

Because we decided we wouldn't be nut-cases (technical term) and snorkel in forecasted 60 degree weather, we decided to book a Disney excursion in Grand Cayman that takes you on a Sea Explorer/Submarine. Sounded like a good compromise.

It involved being tendered to Grand Cayman on a little ferry. And a wait. And then a short walk in Grand Cayman, to a bus. And then a wait to board. And then a wait for the bus to take us to the site of the excursion. And then a wait at the site to board another little ferry. And then a short trip to the actual sort-of submersible little ship.

We pulled up along the little ship, and a practically-a-teenager type person waited and waited until the two ships quit crashing into each other, before tying the two boats together. Then many grinning? happy? scared?. . .sea sick?. . .. people were off-loaded from the little vessel onto our ship, and we were allowed to board the little "Sea Explorer."

I wasn't sure exactly what was suppose to happen, but did ask one couple, as they lurched into a seat as the two boats continued to crash into one another, whether the child-lone-crewperson seemed to know what they were doing. They thought possibly. . . .
And then we prepared to descend. I particularly like to take photographs when I think they might possibly be the last photograph I might ever take in my life. . . . just in case. . . . .

And then, I finally figured out that this little boat actually WASN'T going to descend into the water, but WE just descended a small set of stairs, sat on benches, and looked through glass windows at the ocean around us:

I did really like looking at the schools of fish, and stingrays, and coral. . . and somewhere along the 45 minutes even remembered that my D300s could shoot video (not interesting enough to post.)



This made me wish I really could have gotten skillful at scuba diving. . . . but actually, I really would have just loved to go snorkeling in Mexico or the Grand Caymans, or Castaway Cay. Snorkeling takes me deep enough. . . .

Of course, we then had our return trips of waiting and a boat ride, waiting, and a bus ride, waiting and another boat ride.

All in all, I thought it was way too much "transport" for a very brief excursion. If you ever have a chance to go on a cruise to to the Grand Cayman's, there are much better ways to spend your time than standing or sitting and waiting. The one entertaining feature was a young couple with two little children. . . and the smallest child, about 3 years old, was practically feral!

I kid you not! He bit his mother, breaking the skin. . . . and her method of dealing with this was to try guilt-tripping him by telling him how painful it was "when you came out of me." Dad was just totally out to lunch and no help at all. It was weird. I expected someone to cue the "Jaws" music at any time.

Stars of the Disney Cruise

What's a cruise without wonderful people?
This first is, I admit, a random pirate that we spotted in an elevator.

And this next pirate is Louis, who never made us walk the plank, but saw to it that we had great food every night:

Sarah is a total sweetheart. Every night she made Disney critters out of towells in our room. Sarah told me that she would be out to sea for about 5 or 6 months, and then would go home to Thailand to see her family for 2 months. Her older sister would then make for her whatever food she wanted. The staff members on ships work extremely long hours. I really liked talking to them, whenever I got a chance, hearing about their families, and asking about what it was like to work on the ship.

I'd read about life on a crew ship for another line, and was glad to hear that the workers on the Disney line tended to be very positive about how Disney treats them. Getting time off is very precious, however, especially if they got a chance to sleep.

Day 5: The Disney Cruise-Grand Cayman

On our 5th day, we were tendered to Grand Cayman. I worried about this, thinking it would be like getting in a rowboat, gritting my teeth, and white-knuckling it until we reached land. Nah!!!!! You just walk onto this little boat, and go a very short distance to shore.

The drivers/pilots/boat-steerers (or whatever they're called) are so casual about the routine trip that this one even steered with his feet, most of the time:

Grand Cayman is populated by chickens. They tend to roam wherever they feel like. It kind of cracked me up!

A cruise tends to be a FOOD experience! Any time you want, you can order room service, already included in the cost. I'm really fond of the Mickey ice cream bars and cheese trays. The fruit trays go well with this. . .

. . . and tortilla soup with a chicken salad makes a great lunch. The Key West beer was carried on from our first port.

Tomorrow, a little about our excursion in Grand Cayman. . . (unless I do the Bonnie book review. . . . )