Thursday: Day at Sea
Well, Pirate night proved exhausting for Bella – while most
of us woke up a little late, Miss Bella was zonked. After all of the activity the night before,
we decided to let her sleep in, and Pamela left her a series of post-it notes
around the cabin to let her know where we were and what she could do with
herself. We took Isaac up to breakfast,
and dropped him at the Oceaneers Club…
It sounds like we’re foisting him off every time I write
that, but there are two key details:
First, it’s where he WANTS to be – he has been asking to be checked in
non stop all trip, and Thursday at Sea we told him he could be at the club as
much as he wanted to be… which meant
pretty much all day. Second, the Club is
really cool: There are a lot of
counselors in there, and they make sure the kids mix things up: I’ve seen Isaac playing “gaga ball” – which
is a catch-game on a touch-sensitive floor somehow… Playing video games… but also sitting with a counselor and 3 other
kids playing Uno or Apples to Apples.
They make sure kids are engaged.
So it’s ALMOST like school. So for those reasons, while it almost felt
like cheating to drop him off, it was a wonderful thing for him.
Bella would go in there too, and she’d opt for the more
guided art and cooking activities… and
she especially loved sitting with a counselor and helping younger kids with
their projects. She’s a great teacher’s
helper, and she had that “serene” face on…
but she also had check-out privileges and went to some pin-trading
events (swapping Disney lacquered pins with the crew!).
So why were we so interested in getting Isaac checked in,
and leaving Bella to her own devices? We
had another grown-up meal at Palo with the dashing Ian – BRUNCH. It was a buffet plus prepared dishes: Ian walked us through ALL of the offerings on
the buffet, telling us what was special and what we could miss… and the chef came out to talk to me about
what had walnuts. They were very
concerned and wanted to make sure they wouldn’t kill me (I kept telling them
it’s a MILD allergy, but you don’t mess with litigation). We buffet'ed and had a few dishes prepared as well, and enjoyed the Prosecco too. It was a wonderful two hours.
We hooked up with Isaac and Bella after our brunch and we
had a pleasant light lunch (or more to the point, watched them eat) before
teaming up to finish up the video mystery (Rizzo the Rat did it, but there are
actually several endings possible) and started the “who kidnapped the Dalmatian
puppies mystery” – spoiler alert, it wasn’t Cruella this time! We didn’t get a chance to finish that
mystery, because Isaac wanted to be back in the Oceaneer club, and Pamela and
Bella wanted to go to a Towel folding class…
They learned how to do the Monkey on a hanger, the Elephant, and the
Rabbit. Isaac was excited to be at the
Club because they had some interactive time with Crush the turtle from Nemo –
talking to them. Me? I got a run in.
I got to take three 5k runs during the week – twice outdoors
on the Deck 4 track, and once on a machine.
Thursday was a pretty choppy day on the seas, and Pamela spent a little
time with her feet up waiting for the Dramamine to take hold. It was way
too windy on deck 4, so I tried the treadmill up on deck 11, and it felt like the elevation
on the treadmill just kept randomly engaging – the bumpy sea added quite the
element of surprise to what is usually a pretty predictable run.
Dinner was at Animators again – we TOTALLY lucked out by
getting Animators three times in our trip – and this night we were greeted with
a piece of paper asking us to draw a character: At the end of the night, we were shown an
animation showcase of our characters walking, jumping, and dancing around – it
was completely amazing – and each area of the restaurant had their own set of
drawings going – so somehow they scanned about 1000 of these things in and
inserted them into a very cool template.
It was a pure delight to see.
While we ate (before the animation showcase) they showed footage of just
about every single food-related moment in every Disney movie: I know they could have just shown
Ratatouille, but it was well represented.
Would it shock you to hear that Isaac wanted to go back to
Oceaneers after dinner? Or that Pamela
and Bella went to see yet another live show?
I took some quiet time in the 12th floor bar (big overstuffed
leather chairs and couches looking out the stern of the ship) and enjoyed a
Macallan 18 while blogging about Tuesday and Wednesday and letting myself relax. I was supposed to get Isaac to bed around 830
so that we’d be well rested for Friday, but when I went to pick him up, I heard
he was out on a Field Trip: They brought
him down to another theater (the ship is filled with them!) to an interactive
show called Mirror Mirror, with a few of the Seven Dwarves and the Magic Mirror
from Snow White – I peeked in and saw Isaac in the front row, on the edge of
his seat with a huge smile on his face…
and I decided that we’d deal with Friday on Friday, and he needs to
enjoy this.
We all made it back to the room at almost the same time,
shared stories about our evening, and got down to rest for a big day…
Friday: Castaway Cay
First, a correction to my last update – Apparently Cay is
pronounced “Key” – so we went to Castaway Cay, not Castaway Key. And not Quastaway Quay either. (Seriously, Quay is pronounced Key too? What’s UP with that?)
We woke up to find the boat executing a massive 3 point turn
to BACK into the docking area for Castaway Cay – a Disney-managed island in the
Bahamas. The only people allowed here
are Disney cruisers, and they get 2 visits a week, and the rest of the time to
groom and clean. The shops and food
stands are run by the ship crew (Darma our server was flipping burgers). 5000 people descended on the area as it
opened at 9, and stayed until the ship pulled away at 530.
There are 2 major swimming beaches, a cool water slide
complex, and a private “adults only” area with dining, bars, and beaches that
we will need to take on faith “exists”.
We got off the boat by 10, found a shady spot on a beach (under a palm
tree), and raced off to swim and play.
90 minutes later after a few rides down the water slide and a lot of
splashing in the water, we went to the BBQ area for burgers, dogs, and tropical
fruit (I ate a whole lot of fresh mango and papaya), then right back to the
beach to build a sand version of our ship (no pictures on that – it was either
our ship, or a hot dog).
I worked up a thirst and went to grab a beer from one of the
many stands (also selling smoothies and girl-drinks), and discovered it was
two-for-one. Well, I did not need two,
and Pamela didn’t want one, so I walked up the beach, found a guy with a red
face and a friendly demeanor, and offered it to him. He was genuinely appreciative, and I’m sure
he’ll have a hell of a story for his twelve step group next week (“It was hot
on the beach and this guy just GAVE it to me…”).
Time flew by on that beach – we were shocked to find 5 hours
had passed and it was time for our “schedule activity” – feeding and petting
stingrays! We were grouped around
floating feeding platforms – the 70+ de-barbed stingrays in the lagoon knew to
swim up for food, and we took turns with pieces of squid and shrimp, as these
slimy cool creatures swam up and chomped the food one nipped my finger and it felt like a nutcracker - flat ridged "bars" instead of teeth - not painful at all. We were encouraged to pet them (SOFT!), and they all had
names (I think the guy was making them up on the spot, but he showed us
identifying marks he uses to discern them).
We had a presentation on how they’re humanely captured – many rescued
from nets and injured, and allowed to live here in a big group, with tourists
annoying them only twice a week. It
seemed a good compromise for them – food and protection and healthcare.
After the feeding, we were given snorkels and invited to
paddle around and watch them swim – and we saw the one visiting Barracuda – he
doesn’t bother anyone and comes and goes as he pleases through the fence – as
do the baby Rays who show up every few months.
Bella and I spent the full time allowed out there communing with the Rays. Isaac was freaked out by them (and they are freaky), and
spent his time on the beach making more castles, and Pamela enjoyed the
petting/feeding, but didn’t feel like snorkeling, so we all had our own
experience…
Castaway Cay was a well cultivated attraction to allow us to
experience an island paradise while not worrying about where our wallets were –
it’s as “real” as Epcot, but that’s not a bad thing – the water, sand, sun, and
sea life were real, and so was our fun.
I loved it. Isaac asked if we
could just move there and send for the puppies.
I said I’d take it under consideration.
Also: None of us got
sunburnt. Thank you Pamela for your
diligent reminders about sunscreen… we
saw the benefits.
We joined the throng re-boarding the ship at 430 – wanted to
be on well before they started nagging us – and got ready for dinner. Enchanted Garden this time, good as
always… but we hightailed it out of
there for the final events: Isaac wanted
one last toot at the Oceaneers, Bella and I wanted to see Captain America
Winter Soldier, and Pamela wanted to pack without any of us getting
underfoot. It was a win-win-win
situation.
At Oceaneers, they’ve had a game where a group of kids sits
in front of a video wall, where Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) is trying to
escape a space prison – the kids shout directions and he goes where they tell
him to: Tonight, once he escaped, he
came out in character and played with the kids with a dance party: Isaac told me all about it – they took turns
in the middle of the dance floor making up crazy dance moves for everyone else
to try. Isaac was absolutely thrilled
with the activity, and it was a perfect ending to the week for him.
Bella and I grabbed perfect center seats and donned our 3d
glasses for Captain America: It was a
great movie – but not one that Isaac would have liked – you sort of need the
context of the first movie, and a bit of distrust in government for it to
work. Bella and I were elbowing
eachother at cool parts and it was a great shared experience. Also Black Widow is fantastic.
We all converged back at the room to find Pamela had packed
us up and Jong had taken our suitcases:
Alas, we had tried to make our clothing stretch just right, but we ran
out of several key items – Pamela and Bella made an emergency run to the shops
and came back with some socks, sweatpants and shirts to make sure we were all
appropriately dressed in non-stinky clothes.
The kids were asleep by 11, and we were down by midnight, with the
alarms set for an early wake-up.
Saturday – Time to go HOME:
Woke up at 550 am (with my alarm having been ringing for 5 minutes and
being well integrated into my dream – the sound of the alarm became the sound
of the ship docking), for breakfast at 645 and disembarkation at 8am. It was NOT an easy wake-up considering how late
we stayed up, but we made it zombie-like through it all. Darma was true to his word and showed a very
sleepy Isaac how he did his disappearing crayon trick. We got hugs from the staff, and we boarded
the gangplank, I turned around and whispered “good bye” with a tear in my
eye.
Customs wasn’t a problem, and Ernest Borgnine picked us up
at the door with our luggage. His
cheerful, braying voice was a bit hard to take with as sleepy as we all were,
but it was nice not to have to be fighting crowds on a bus. The Orlando airport was a zoo, and we passed
several feral bands of spring break revelers, happy we weren’t any part of
that. We sat in the Delta Club – a quiet
oasis where the kids were able to Netflix a bit (Bella had been jonesing for
some Cake Boss). The flight loaded and
departed on-time, and we’re happily jetting home to 40-degree weather – not
quite the 100 degree temperature delta I suffered in February coming home from
the conference, but not pleasant…. We're coming home.
Additional Thoughts on the Trip:
First: It was one of
the best vacations we’ve taken in a long time:
It ranks right up with Boyds for magical “perfectness” and I’m sold on
the Disney Cruise experience.
Second: I know I’m
writing about a lot of action, but it’s also important to note that there was a
lot of downtime and independent time too – we all got a lot of time to unwind
and do what we wanted to do: Isaac
wanted to play, and he played. Bella
wanted a lot of time with us, and we gave it to her. Pamela and I wanted time to connect and be
grown-ups together, and we got it.
We wanted to have no stress, and we were largely
successful. I got a little nervous about
Grand Cayman – going out into the real world…
and Isaac’s bedtime intensity was a bit much to handle sometimes… but in all, the goal of a memorable, fun, relaxing
trip was achieved.
I’m grateful to Pamela for all the work she put into
organizing this: Her research, her work
with Lorna Klefsaas our travel agent, and her commitment to packing the perfect
suitcase really paid off. I feel very
lucky to have such a great partner, and such great kids to write about. I’m grateful to have a good job that allows
me to pay for a vacation like this, AND where the few times I tried to check in
to work, I had my partners and bosses shut me down and tell me they have it
under control and not to check in again OR ELSE.
Here ends the trip blog, but if I remember any other
details, I’ll be sure to post them.
Thanks for reading!
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