Goin' with the Flow- TCD's Disney Dream Trip Report

[DznyRulz 1]

I'm loving it. Can't wait for Castaway Cay. I need an Android app so I can follow along on my phone.

[BassMaster 7]

Aqua Duck, oh yeah. Totally tubular, dude. Like, whoooooaaa. Thanks again for inviting us along. I am certainly enjoying the ride.

[AuburnJen 770]

I'm loving it. Can't wait for Castaway Cay. I need an Android app so I can follow along on my phone.

just use the mobile version, that is what we use on our android phones...works great!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great update!! You were still allowed to take pictures of the shows when we were on the cruise, but I didn't have a great camera then, and the few shots I did take were awful. I wish, I wish now I had better show pictures.

Well that confirms that the no photography thing is kind of new. I think it was a good move. When everyone is allowed to have a camera, it is inevitable that someone will "forget" to turn off his flash, and that can ruin the show for everyone, as there are a lot of special effects that require special lighting. Not to mention all the glowing LCD screens. I don't think the average photographer could get very good photos of these shows anyway, so I am OK with the photography ban.

I loved this update. You're right... there WERE a lot of characters on the first day (and I don't mean mice or ducks). I have a feeling they were there for the entire cruise. ;D

This is really making me want to take a cruise. I've never been certain that I would like it but I do believe I would.

I believe that you would love a cruise! Keep reading about the non-stop fun!

Thanks for sharing the List Of Fun! If Twin #1 doesn't mind, I think I might plagiarize a nit of it for our upcoming trip. My kids LOVE scavenger hunts and things like this so it will be totally up their alley.

By all means, feel free to use the list. Some of the things on there are unique to our family and have stories behind them, which will be told in due time. You may want to substitute something else for those.

I'm loving it. Can't wait for Castaway Cay. I need an Android app so I can follow along on my phone.

Well, Castaway Cay was our first stop, so it isn't far off. We just need to get through our first night on the ship and we will be there!

Aqua Duck, oh yeah. Totally tubular, dude. Like, whoooooaaa. Thanks again for inviting us along. I am certainly enjoying the ride.

Tubular.

I get it.

Good one.

just use the mobile version, that is what we use on our android phones...works great!!

Well, there you go.

Get on it, Chris!

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

OK, I think we have our first afternoon on the ship covered.

But, there is an important fact that I forgot to mention.

Our cruise left on Friday, July 13th.

That's right, we were sailing on Friday the 13th.

But, that isn't why I mentioned the date.

There is something way more significant than that.

July 13th is Mrs. TCD's birthday!

We knew well ahead of time that we were sailing on Mrs. TCD's birthday. And there was quite a bit of discussion among the TCD gang about how we would handle it. Eventually, Mrs. TCD stepped in and laid down the law. We were to not make a big deal about it. She was serious. I made the mistake once of disregarding this type of request from Mrs. TCD and she still mentions it. I may be slow, but I do learn. So we did not make matching t-shirts or big signs or do anything else to call attention to this day.

But, still, it was her birthday, and we had to do something.

The girls had heard that there are special DCL birthday buttons. They even went to the guest services desk earlier in the day to see if they could get one. The were told that there are special buttons, but they were all out. I thought this was odd, how could they run out of buttons? I thought maybe they got that answer because they were teens. Maybe the castmember thought they were just fooling around. So, I went myself to ask. Check out this cool mural that they have behind the desk:

A very friendly castmember told me that yes, he would get me a birthday button. The poor guy was gone for quite a while. And then he came back empty handed. I guess they really were out of the buttons. He gave me a Magic Moments button instead. Oh well.

While the girls were meeting characters in the atrium and looking around the ship before dinner, I took Mrs. TCD to the champagne bar, Pink. We had heard about this bar, and Mrs. TCD wanted to visit it. So we popped in for a glass of bubbly before dinner. It is a very cool venue. There are bubbles all over the wall which flash on and off, and a really cool light fixture behind the bar. The service was great. As we sipped our champagne, Goofy came running through the bar. We later found out that we were adjacent to the Evolution night club, and I guess Goofy had made an appearance there. As he ran through, I snapped a photo. The group of guests at the next table asked him to stop for a photo, and the castmember guiding him said they didn't want any photos taken of Goofy in the bar. Too late! :

As you can see, the lighting was very low in Pink.

Our waiter was chatty, and he told us about something I had not heard of before. He said that there is an optical illusion in Pink that can only be seen on the LCD screens of certain digital cameras. He asked what brand mine was, and I told him it was a Cannon. He said that would work. He told me to look at the bar through my camera screen. I did. What I saw was really cool. It looked like there were bubbles floating around the room. I am not sure if this is an intentional feature. I suspect that it is not. And, I'll be darned if I can figure out what made it happen. I told everyone at dinner about this, and we all went back later in the cruise to see. The TCD girls thought it was stupid. But I think it's cool. We later discussed this with our bartender buddy, Maria, and she said that some people were able to videotape the phenomenon. I went back early one morning to see if I could. And I could. Check out this video. Hopefully you will see what looks like bubbles rising up from out of nowhere. I still have no idea how this worked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXQS4gI-ISY&feature=channel&list=UL

After our drink, it was time for dinner.

Our first restaurant assignment was the Royal Palace. I was happy about this, as it is the fanciest restaurant on the ship, and it was a great way to kick things off.

The dining rooms are great, with tablecloths and cloth napkins:

So, what were our choices?

Here's the menu from that dining room:

Appetizers

Pomegranate Glazed Duck Breast — with Gewürztraminer Gelée and Pomegranate Glaze

Double Baked Spinach Soufflé — Coated with a three-cheese cream

Escargots Gratins — Herb-marinated Snails with Finely Chopped Mushrooms, topped with garlic butter and Breadstick

Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp — White and green Asparagus, Micro Greens and lemon-dill dressing with horseradish cream

Soups and Salads

Avocado-Citrus Salad — with Iceberg and Radicchio Leaves and an orange Vinaigrette

The Comtesse Du Barry’s Soup — rich velvety Cauliflower Cream, topped with Salmon Caviar Croutons

Royal Market Queen Salad — Cherry tomato, Cucumbers, Peppered goat cheese and a Raspberry Vinaigrette

Belle’s French Onion Soup — with Gruyére Cheese Crouton

Main Course

Royal Palace Aged Angus Grilled Beef Tenderloin and Lobster Medallions — Sautéed Snow peas and Marquis Potatoes with a Cognac Reduction

Oven-baked Salmon Royale — Crowned with King Smoked salmon and Horseradish, Crust accompanied by Sautéed Swiss Chard, Truffle-infused Cauliflower Purée and White Wine Beurre Blanc

Roasted Wild Boar Tenderloin — Sweet Carrot and onion potato cake with a Red Currant Reduction

Grilled Farm-Raised Organic Chicken Breast Salad — Romaine Lettuce, Herbed Croutons, Cherry Tomatoes and a Creamy Parmesan Dressing

Double Cut Rack of Lamb with a Dijon Crust — with fine Green beans, Gratin potatoes and rosemary jus

Pan Seared Tofu, Roasted Zucchini, Eggplant and Red Peppers — on Israeli Couscous with a Lime-Cilanto Drop

Baked Farm-Raised Organic Chicken Breast — filled with Escarole, Raisins and pine nuts on Wild rice with a red wine reduction

Wild Mushroom filled Pasta in a Vegetable Broth — topped with Watercress, Shaved Parmesan Cheese and a Paprika oil Drizzle

You can order whatever you want. If you want two appetizers, go for it. Two entrees? Same thing.

You may have noticed that one of the items on the List Of Fun was to eat something you have never eaten before. The TCD twins dove right in on that challenge by ordering the Duck appetizer. Here is what it looked like:

They also got one of the Spinach Souffle's:

I went with the lobster and shrimp. It was outstanding.

Most of the adults had the onion soup, but Twin #1 was going wild, and had the Cauliflower soup (with caviar):

For the main course, I went with the steak. The Wild Boar interested me, but I wasn't going to turn down a steak for Wild Boar. Twin #2 went for it, and here is what it looked like:

This is the chicken entree:

And this is the steak topped with lobster:

We also ordered an order of lamb, which several of us shared, as the girls had never tried it before.

I tried a bite of the Boar. I was expecting it to taste like a pork chop. It didn't. It tasted more like beef. Weird.

On the Disney cruise, you are assigned a team of servers. They travel with you for the cruise from dining room to dining room. Ours were great. But, our table was located in a far corner of the dining room, and service was slow. It didn't bother us, as we enjoyed all of the time together, but our dinners routinely took two hours plus. I didn't like that so much, as we had things to do.

On this first evening, the TCD twins left the table at around 10- they wanted to go to a meet and greet at the kids club.

So they missed it when our head waiter brought Mrs. TCD a little cake and a DCL birthday button (which none of us had been able to do) :

It was 10:30 before we got out of the dining room that night.

The plan was for us to all meet up at the Aqua Duck at 11 so we could get in some rides. The schedule said it would be open until midnight.

I checked the girls cabin right before 11, and no one was there. Just this towel creation from our cabin steward:

Our Cabin Steward was probably the friendliest one we ever had. His name was Nayla. But, it became a running joke that he did not understand a thing we said to him. We made a few requests along the way, and he would shake his head and say no problem. Then he would do something completely different from what we asked. He was a great guy, though. And always smiling. Go with the flow.

You may have noticed some cheap looking phones on our table in some of the photos in this post. These are what they call Wave phones. Every cabin gets two, and you can use them to call each other. You can even text. But, it's old school texting. LIke where you have to hit one button three times to make one letter. Phooey. We didn't use them. But, I can see where it would be great to have those if you had younger kids that had to be picked up from their clubs.

I mentioned the phones to preface what happened next. The plan was to meet at the Aqua Duck at 11. That would give us an hour to ride. The thing is, I didn't know where any of the girls were. I went up to the Aqua Duck anyway. And got some bad news! It was closed. Lightning had been spotted, and they had to close it. The castmember I spoke to said since it was so late in the evening, they would probably no reopen it that night. Poop!

I walked around the top deck to wait and see if the girls would show. After about 5 minutes, I ran into the two older girls, and told them the bad news about the Aqua Duck. They told me that they had just talked to a castmember too, but that he told them that they were going to reopen in 10 minutes!

What?

So we got in line.

With just a few other guests.

And then the castmember came out and said they were going to reopen the ride, but that there would be no single riders allowed, because of the high winds. Poop again. I was a single rider.

Then I saw Frank. Hooray! I could ride with him. But then Nancy showed up right behind him, and I was the odd man out again. Frank and Nancy and the two older girls went ahead and rode, and I stood there like a loser.

As I stood there, the TCD twins showed up. They hopped on line too. Poor me.

Frank and Nancy came back, and Nancy said she was good for the night- once was enough for her.

So Frank and I got to ride together. So, my first time was with a dude.

What we found out, though, was that having a fat guy in the front of the tube makes you go like a rocket.

Suddenly, I was in demand.

We rode that Duck in different combinations right up until midnight.

We told the castmember at the bottom of the stairs that we wanted to be the last ones to ride.

Twin #1 and I were waiting at the bottom of the stairs so we could get on line right before they closed the gate. The castmember there told us to go ahead and ride one more time, and then she would let us on again and we would be the last to ride for the night. So we did. And we were.

More bragging rights.

I got in 6 Aqua Duck rides that first night. That 10 number would be a piece of cake.

We finished our night in the hot tub. We were the last ones in there too before the castmember came to kick us out. The hot tubs hang out a bit over the water, and have glass panels in the bottom. You can't see it very well, but the ocean is passing by 12 decks below. Cool.

The last order of business for the night was to order room service.

It's free, you know.

I got myself one of those Premium Mickey bars. They aren't on the menu. But, they have them. It's a secret. Don't tell anyone.

Eating one of those after midnight was on the List Of Fun.

Check.

It was 2-ish when I went next door to my cabin.

That was a fun first day.

Tomorrow we will be at Castaway Cay!

And the fun will really begin!

TCD

[shoreline99 137]

What a great vacation that must have been. Sounds like a blast so far. List o' fun? Brilliant!

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Wow! You guys sure know how to have a good time.

The meal looked fabulous. I love duck. I've never had boar. I love lobster. I would have been all over that menu, and can't believe you can order multiple items. That is pretty cool. I have a feeling I would make a fool of myself.

Kudos on getting in 6 rides on the AD. How long is a ride? I'm picturing like 60 seconds or so...is it longer?

Finally...that hot tub cantilevered over the ocean would freak me out. No thanks.

[stefa70 205]

I do see the bubbles in your video. Pretty neat! I'm not sure how neat it would be after a few too many though. (Sort of like the rotating bar at the ABC Lounge)

"My first time was with a dude" :what2: Probably not your best phrasing.

Mrs. TCD looks so cute in her Birthday suit......er...hat.

As for the dinner, the last time we cruised, we never once made it to the sit down dinner. We were always on the go and would grab something from the buffet. They take too darn long.

I eat to live, not live to eat.

Our poor table mates probably thought we didn't exist.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I must be of a certain age and think the bubbles are cool. Or I am just easily amused. :rofl2:

Dinner looked wonderful, so many choices. That's the thing I love about cruising. I love to try different things, if I don't care for it they just bring something else.

Yay, for Aqua duck reopening and double yay for riding it 6 times.

Last but not least,to Mrs. TCD.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Thanks for the reminder to have family vacations while the children are all still at home. Can't wait to see how much of the LOF you get to!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

It is so awesome that the cruise began on Mrs. TCD's birthday! That dinner menu -- wow. I would have had a difficult time deciding because everything sounded wonderful.

BTW, if anyone can't see the bubbles, I couldn't either until I set the video to full screen.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Happy Birthday to Mrs. TCD and I will spare her the usually bad composed song. I wouldn't like to be on her bad list.... like some unmentioned fiend. Kudos for the AD rides.. like Dave I wanna know how long the rides last.

I could see the bubbles too but I agree that after a few drinks that might not be a good thing.

[dvccamper 32]

I love that you posted the menu offerings, I picked what I would have ordered but none of you ordered what I would have picked so I had to use my imagination. The bubbles were cool and good job on getting all those rides in...I guess going after 11:00 is the way to hit that ride.

I am soooo wanting to book a Disney cruise and I don't think reading this report is helping me.

[mgsmom 9]

What a great way to start off the trip and to enjoy Mrs. TCD's birthday! Looks like a very nice dinner! I'm wondering what in the world do the little kids do? Do they sit for the whole 2 hours? There is no way my DD (4) would hang that long sitting at a table.

I'm with Dave - no thanks on the suspended hot tub. Yech. Way too creepy for me.

Awesome job on scoring the Aqua Duck rides! Sweeeeeeet!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

What a great vacation that must have been. Sounds like a blast so far. List o' fun? Brilliant!

It was a great vacation. Our best ever.

That List Of Fun turned out to be a huge hit. Just wait until you hear some of the doors it opened for us.

Wow! You guys sure know how to have a good time.

The meal looked fabulous. I love duck. I've never had boar. I love lobster. I would have been all over that menu, and can't believe you can order multiple items. That is pretty cool. I have a feeling I would make a fool of myself.

Kudos on getting in 6 rides on the AD. How long is a ride? I'm picturing like 60 seconds or so...is it longer?

Finally...that hot tub cantilevered over the ocean would freak me out. No thanks.

I did go overboard at dinner that first night. That was July 13th- so 9 days ago as I type this. I have not been hungry since then. By the time the cruise was over, I was ready to swear off food for a while.

The Aqua Duck ride is longer than I thought it would be. I would say around a minute and a half. It goes around both smokestacks on the ship. It's at least as long as the water coasters they have at Typhone Lagone. So you get a whole day of exsightment out of them!

The hot tub wasn't a big deal. I didn't realize it because I was riding at night, but the Aqua Duck actually travels out over the side of the ship too. I have a photo of that coming in the next batch.

I do see the bubbles in your video. Pretty neat! I'm not sure how neat it would be after a few too many though. (Sort of like the rotating bar at the ABC Lounge)

"My first time was with a dude" :what2: Probably not your best phrasing.

Mrs. TCD looks so cute in her Birthday suit......er...hat.

As for the dinner, the last time we cruised, we never once made it to the sit down dinner. We were always on the go and would grab something from the buffet. They take too darn long.

I eat to live, not live to eat.

Our poor table mates probably thought we didn't exist.

LOL!

Great comments, Stef!

I wasn't a fan of those long dinners either. But, I did enjoy the family time.

I must be of a certain age and think the bubbles are cool. Or I am just easily amused. :rofl2:

Dinner looked wonderful, so many choices. That's the thing I love about cruising. I love to try different things, if I don't care for it they just bring something else.

Yay, for Aqua duck reopening and double yay for riding it 6 times.

Last but not least,to Mrs. TCD.

Thanks, Doodle.

I would say the food was a highlight on this cruise too. And the kids love being able to order whatever they want. It isn't like that when we all go out to eat at home.

Thanks for the reminder to have family vacations while the children are all still at home. Can't wait to see how much of the LOF you get to!

Definitely do the family vacations while you can. This is likely our last summer with the twins at home, and our oldest graduates college next May. Who knows where she will be after that?

It is so awesome that the cruise began on Mrs. TCD's birthday! That dinner menu -- wow. I would have had a difficult time deciding because everything sounded wonderful.

BTW, if anyone can't see the bubbles, I couldn't either until I set the video to full screen.

That was just the first night's menu.

We had a different one each night.

My favorite was the last night's. We will get there eventually.

Glad you could see the bubbles. I didn't know about this ahead of time, and I think it's cool I was able to get them on video.

Happy Birthday to Mrs. TCD and I will spare her the usually bad composed song. I wouldn't like to be on her bad list.... like some unmentioned fiend. Kudos for the AD rides.. like Dave I wanna know how long the rides last.

I could see the bubbles too but I agree that after a few drinks that might not be a good thing.

The only Fiend on Mrs. TCD's bad list is Donnie. And he knows it.

I said above that my estimate of the ride length is a minute and a half. I would say it's just right.

I love that you posted the menu offerings, I picked what I would have ordered but none of you ordered what I would have picked so I had to use my imagination. The bubbles were cool and good job on getting all those rides in...I guess going after 11:00 is the way to hit that ride.

I am soooo wanting to book a Disney cruise and I don't think reading this report is helping me.

Yes, the 11-12 hour was what worked best for us on the Aqua Duck. We did that every night, except for one, when I wimped out. The kids gave me heck for that.

As others mentioned, during the day on one of the port days works too.

What a great way to start off the trip and to enjoy Mrs. TCD's birthday! Looks like a very nice dinner! I'm wondering what in the world do the little kids do? Do they sit for the whole 2 hours? There is no way my DD (4) would hang that long sitting at a table.

I'm with Dave - no thanks on the suspended hot tub. Yech. Way too creepy for me.

Awesome job on scoring the Aqua Duck rides! Sweeeeeeet!!

Most families with young kids get the first seating. That one moves a lot faster, because they have to get everyone in and out before the second seating people arrive. Also, they have a deal where they will bring out the children's menu stuff first to let the kids eat, and then the camp counselors come around and collect the kids while mom and dad finish their meal. This is a Disney cruise, they have the kids handled.

TCD

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Sure wish I could talk my DH into spending the money on a Disney Cruise. You make it sound like so much fun.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Since this looks like it is going to end up being a long report, I had better get cracking on the updates.

So, here we are on day two of our cruise.

Before moving on, I meant to mention something about the title.

Go with the flow.

That was our motto on this trip.

When I booked it, I expected that there would be better rates released closer to the cruise, and that we would be able to upgrade from our porthole cabins to balcony cabins.

Disney up and changed the game on me.

They did release discounts. But they were limited to new bookings only. That isn't how it used to be. But, that's the way it is now. I was steamed about that.

I even wrote a letter to the president of DCL complaining.

I got a call a few days later from some idiot who kept repeating the same thing about how the discount was only available on new bookings.

I knew that, I told him, that's why I wrote the letter.

That, apparently, was how they handle things now.

So, I had two choices: Stew about it and let it diminish the trip, or go with the flow.

I chose the second option.

I had explained this to the TCD ladies.

This was an expensive vacation, and we were not going to let anything take away from our enjoyment of it.

There is a song in the Finding Nemo musical at Animal Kingdom called Go With The Flow.

I think it's an original number written for that show.

Guess what one of the first songs we heard on the pool deck was right after we boarded the ship?

Yep.

It was confirmation that we would go with the flow on this trip.

And we did.

So, I didn't set my alarm for Saturday morning. I had been up late, and I figured that I would get up when I got up.

I woke up around 7:15, and it sure felt like the boat was not moving.

I looked out the porthole, and we were still moving. But slowly. And the sun was up. Could we be at Castaway Cay already?

I headed up top for a look.

Sure enough, we were almost docked! :

Here's the same shot plus a seagull:

That part of the island over there is undeveloped:

All the stuff is over on this side:

Look at that blue water! :

Here's a closer look at the family beach. That is where we have always gone on our previous visits:

Hmmm- those clouds don't look good. That could be a problem later:

Uh Oh- look at all that rain falling out there in the distance:

Did you notice that ridiculously tall palm tree in those last two photos?

Me too.

Nice try on that.

It had rained during the night, as stuff was wet, including our porthole:

So, was our Castaway Cay day going to be a wash out?

Who cares?

We were going with the flow.

We had our delicious breakfast.

No photos of that, sorry.

We went to the buffet in Cabanas.

You never saw so much bacon.

And I ate all that I could.

I easily ate more bacon on this cruise than I have in the last year.

Go with the flow.

Our friends are go-getters, so they got off the ship earlier than us. We decided to meet up at a new spot for us. Over by a new feature they have on the island. It's called Pelican Plunge, and it was added sometime after our last cruise in 2009.

The oldest TCD DD decided that she wanted to sleep in a bit, so it was just Mrs. TCD and the twins who left the ship at around 10.

They were doing something with the lifeboats that morning. Check out the size of those things:

Here are the TCD twins at the beginning of this beautiful day:

And here's yet another photo of Mrs. TCD:

The LOF required a photo with a rare character, and we figured Lilo was pretty rare (except at the Polynesian Resort at WDW) :

For those of you who were freaked out about the hot tub hanging over the side of the ship, how do you like how the Aqua Duck takes you out over the water? :

You can see the glass panels on the bottom of the hot tub in this next photo. Look at the deck jutting out way over the life boats. Do you see those four small rectangles? Those are the glass panels:

I meant to get a photo of the back of the ship when we walked by, but I forgot. So I took one from here at the tram stop. You see that Sorceror Mickey hanging there on the back? He's 14 feet tall:

Look at how blue the water is out there in the boat lagoon:

You may not know this, but you can get a Kenny Cart at Castaway Cay. The delivery fee is a killer, though:

Hey, look, it's Captain Hook on the back of a Kenny Cart! :

Here's a look at the ship from the first tram stop. This is where we had gotten off on our previous visits to the island:

But, this time, we continued on to the new area that they built around Pelican Plunge.

This is a photo of Pelican Plunge- it's that big waterslide thing in the back of this photo. I included the dude with the abs because Mrs. TCD and Nancy were drooling over him as we set up camp. I figured the ladies reading along might enjoy the view as well. He kind of reminds me of me, but I am too modest to post any shirtless pics of myself:

Also don't miss how pretty the water looks in that photo.

Like I said, that Pelican Plunge was new.

It should have been on the List of Fun.

But we forgot to add it.

No worries.

We had to try it anyway.

And that actually became the first order of business.

We will be heading out there next.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

Dude with abs. Thank You God. :smug:

I'm so distracted right now I can't comment on the rest of the photos.

I would like to add that I'm sorry your porthole got wet.

[dvccamper 32]

Also don't miss how pretty the water looks in that photo.

There was water in that picture?

[SCTigerCock 171]

Add "use zoom for abs" next time on the LOF.

:clint:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Sure wish I could talk my DH into spending the money on a Disney Cruise. You make it sound like so much fun.

Be on the lookout for deals. There have been some very good deals on the DCL site lately. If you can go in September or between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are some very low fares out there.

It is expensive, but when you consider that it includes all your food, and first class accommodations and entertainment, it really isn't a bad deal.

Dude with abs. Thank You God. :smug:

I'm so distracted right now I can't comment on the rest of the photos.

I would like to add that I'm sorry your porthole got wet.

There was water in that picture?

Add "use zoom for abs" next time on the LOF.

:clint:

As my kids say:

SMH!

TCD

[SCTigerCock 171]

As my kids say:

SMH!

I have an idea your daughters would be saying something else about Mr. Abs.... :jumpforjoy

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Looks like I have time for one more little update.

That's three today.

Nice.

We are heading to Pelican Plunge now.

And, I have a waterproof camera.

On past cruises I didn't.

I would just use one of those disposable waterproof cameras.

They don't take very good photos.

We got this little Fuji camera last summer. It takes nice photos.

Actually, this is our second.

The first one is somewhere on the bottom of the intercoastal waterway near the Clearwater Aquarium.

Twin #1 dropped it there.

Those cameras don't float.

So, we got a floating handle for this one.

Go with the flow.

We are good to go.

Here are the girls heading out to Pelican Plunge. It was just me, Frank, the TCD twins, and my oldest DD's BFF. My oldest daughter was still on the ship, and the moms were busy watching that nice blue water in front of our chairs.

Here we see Twin #2 and the BFF swimming out to the platform:

The water is deep out there. And the tide was out too. So it gets even deeper.

This scary bunch of cloud blew right by us as we waited our turn on the slides:

This whole thing is neat. There are water cannons out here and little sculptures of things in the water for kids to shoot at:

Twin #1 tried the cannons out, and screamed and called me over to take a photo of this big fish:

The big bucket that you see in this photo fills with water, and then dumps over on anyone standing below:

This slide reminds me a lot of the slide at the Fort:

I took these next two photos from up on the top deck after you climb the stairs. Look at all the little details they included:

We were set up somewhere in that group of umbrellas you see in this photo. That dude with the abs is probably over there somewhere:

Speaking of details, I thought that this logo was cool:

I tried to take photos of the girls going down the slide, but my timing was a bit off:

I had a great view of the ship from up here:

While we were waiting our turn for one of the rides, Frank pointed out a guy over on another dock. He even pointed him out to the lifeguard on duty, and asked her what it looked like that guy was doing:

After missing the girls going down the slide, I adjusted my timing, and got Frank right in the crosshairs:

There was no line, so we rode a few times. We all checked out both slides. I liked the enclosed one- it was a lot faster than the other one.

Here's another shot of the ship:

This should have been a photo of Twin #2 flying through the air at the end of her slide. But, I was late again, so all you get is the splash:

Frank and the girls were hanging out waiting for us to finish the last ride. They got chased away by this lifeguard right after I took this photo:

Another new thing on the island is this splash area called Spring A Leak:

Those flags spell out something.

The flags in the back spell out Spring A Leak.

The flags in the front say Pixie Du. . . I didn't get the last two flags- but I'll bet it says Pixie Dust.

Attention to detail.

Awesome.

It was right here that I had a camera malfunction.

The camera said the memory card was full.

I had asked Twin #1 to remember the memory card that went with this camera. She had used it last. When we went to the beach on our trip earlier in the month, she forgot the memory card. So, we had to switch cards from camera to camera, which causes problems sometimes. She remembered the card this time. But it was nearly full. I had to go and delete some photos. Which I did. When I was done, the camera died. Dead. As a doornail. It wouldn't turn on. It wouldn't do anything. Poop, There goes my snorkeling pictures. I thought maybe the battery died. But I had just charged it. I even charged it again back on the ship that night. But that camera is dead. Double poop. It must have gotten some water in it somewhere.

Oh well, Go with the Flow, right?

Next up, we will head out for some snorkeling. And then it will be lunch time. We never miss a meal.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

As my kids say:

SMH!

TCD

So Much Hotness?

Stud Muffin Heaven?

Stop My Hands?

Some Mighty Hardness?

Stef May Have a stroke?

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

The water looks so gorgeous. Whenever I need to deal with some gross child issue, I just keep repeating my mantra - "Crystal clear, blue water; beautiful, white, shining beaches." That has helped me through many an issue. Now I can just add the mentall image of castaway cay.