Dreaming Away plus Kennedy - the Lurker returns

[Southern Blessings 4]

Palo sounds nice, it's great that you were able to get in again! I'm enjoying learning more about cruising Disney style. Y'all look like you're having so much fun!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Yeah!! Updates!!

[lklasing 16]

Thanks for still being there, guys! I haven't had a chance to reply to any posts recently, so here goes:

Great update, Leslie.

I love the photo of Ray fighting the pirate!

I can't argue with you about Nassau. But I say if anyone has never been, he or she must still get off the boat and walk through the marketplace and past the hair braiders and taxi drivers and at least walk around for a little while. Then you can see you have been to Nassau, and never feel bad about choosing not to get off the ship on your next visit.

I think it's interesting that you and Ray chose to go to Palo twice. For some reason, it is hard to get reservations before a cruise, and yet you report that the dining room was only 1/3 full, and you had no problems going twice. I wonder if people cancel, or if DCL deliberately holds back on the reservations?

I am impressed by your six mile run! Wow! Good for you! That fact now has me wondering if you did the Castaway Cay 5K. I guess we will find out soon enough.

TCD

Nassau - I know that there are neat things to do there, but we obviously didn't do them. Danielle loved the straw market, though. I didn't hate it, but like you said, I can now say that I've been there, done that. I know there are lots of neat things to do at Atlantis and would probably have done some of them if we had been there on a boat that wasn't so appealing, but I couldn't see spending lots of money and time on an excursion when such a wonderful boat was there to enjoy on a trip that we already didn't have enough time on.

Palo - it was great. You're right about not being able to get easy reservations. I stayed up until 11:00 one night to make reservations at Palo and Remi (ultimately cancelled - update on that one next) and then got up at 2:00 to reserve our time to board the ship. Disney limits you to one dinner at each of their signature restaurants for each cruise but allows you to make additional reservations while on the ship. It was easy and so totally worth going back to again, and again...

Running on CC - stay tuned!

Love the update!

I agree! Everyone should visit there once ... see the Queen's Staircase and the fort ... go over to Atlantis and see the unreal glass sculptures and the part of the Dig that is free ... experience the straw market (it used to be so much nicer when it was in a building) ... and the Cloisters.

Like Jamaica. So many cruise passengers hate it. But it is a beautiful country with so much to experience. You just have to be careful about where you go and who you go with. The coffee fields are incredible. Climbing Dunns River Falls with my BFF who is disabled was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both of us.

Part of the cruising experience is getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing things you would never get the chance for at home.

I totally agree, Gwen! If we had had a longer cruise, then I definitely would have made reservations for some of the neat things you can do at Nassau - I read a bunch about all the history there and the neat things that can be done. I just need to be able to afford a longer cruise next time!

I don't mind the dragging, atleast it's not over yet. :)

Thanks, Jeff! Glad you're still with us!

Whew, Just catching up! Love the Wolfs Dance and could see your family doing that! You and Ray look so happy, it's could to have time with each other and I'm glad that you were able to do that on a Disney cruise! G Fab sounds fabulous! :)

Ray and I really had a great time together. We have always loved traveling with each other, but this trip was more like ones we had before we even had kids. I did miss the girls being with us, but being able to have so much fun with Ray was really fun. I think it's funny that so many of the pictures of this trip have my arm (holding out my camera) in them. :laugh: And yes, G-Fab is fabulous. We're so lucky to get to live close together and travel together sometimes.

I'm still enjoying and reading! Will be interested to hear about your CC day....and about your second Palo dinner!

Thanks, Dave! Glad you're still with us!

Oops - I guess I didn't give enough detail on the second Palo meal as you missed it! :clint: It was absolutely perfect. We definitely tried to eat less this time and Nicholai knew just what to recommend for us given what we had had the night before and how we liked to eat. We still miss Nicholai and several of our lovely bartenders. :wine:

[lklasing 16]

Palo sounds nice, it's great that you were able to get in again! I'm enjoying learning more about cruising Disney style. Y'all look like you're having so much fun!

Thanks for reading and posting! Cruising Disney style is really great. Honestly, I thought we might be disappointed given the "fancier" cruise that we took a couple of years ago, but the service, accommodations and food (at Palo) was really better than that we received on the other ship. I highly recommend Disney cruises if you're thinking about it!

Yeah!! Updates!!

Thanks, Nicki! Glad you're on board!

[lklasing 16]

I forgot to include this picture on my last post. This guy was hanging in our room when we made it back late Friday night:

We left it there and went to bed. Apparently when Jody came in later, she was startled by a sudden snore from Ray and then ran into the monkey. She, as she says, “almost peed right then and there”. Nothing like getting to scare the stew out of your kid without even trying. :hah:

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Oops - I guess I didn't give enough detail on the second Palo meal as you missed it! :clint: It was absolutely perfect. We definitely tried to eat less this time and Nicholai knew just what to recommend for us given what we had had the night before and how we liked to eat. We still miss Nicholai and several of our lovely bartenders. :wine:

Well duh, I went back and read it again. I remember you saying how you repeated the evening...but somehow missed that that included the second Palo meal.

I am on heavy duty antibiotics so maybe I'm just operating in a fog...

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

Love reading about your cruise!!!

[lklasing 16]

Saturday, August 4 - Castaway Cay Day!

We woke up around 6:30 – pretty early considering such a late bedtime each night, but I was so excited to look out on the veranda and see that we were pulling into Castaway Cay. Without even reading TCD's recent report, I took this to see if anyone could find the cell tower on the island:

I finally got to see Jody and Danielle after over a day of not seeing them at all on Friday. We had a group discussion over who in the family wanted to do the CC5K run. Jody declared herself to be too out of shape, but Ray, Danielle and I all decided to do it. So, we dressed in our running clothes, grabbed a quick bite at Cabanas, and headed down to 687 for the pre-race meeting at 8:30. We got race numbers and a fun pep talk by the CMs in charge. Goofy met us at the gangplank in his running attire, then we were off toward the start line. Jody hooked up with Tiger and his kids.

We walked for a about a year till we got to the start line, received final instructions from the CMs, then we were off. They had a clock timing us – very much like a real race. Danielle took off – gone. From that point on, we saw her from behind only, other than when she was on her way back and we were still heading out. She did great. Ray tried to go out too fast but eventually the heat and sun slowed him down to a pace I could keep up with. Final time for Ray and me – 31:30. Not speedy but it sure was fun. When finally finished, got a (plastic) medal. Awesome.

(Here is where I should put a picture of the medal but we were so hot and tired after the race that I forgot to take a picture…)

After the race, Ray and I split from Danielle who hooked up with Jody and the rest of the teens. Ray and I changed into swimsuits and hit the family beach to hang for a while. We looked unsuccessfully for Tiger and kids, soaked in the beautiful water, rested from the 5K, then rented snorkles and headed off in search of the elusive underwater Mickey.

Let me tell you – putting on fins and swimming out for about 10 miles (maybe a little less but it seemed like forever) to find an underwater Mickey after running the race on a morning after some serious bar hopping makes for some tired feet, legs and minds. But, finally, look what we found:

:jumpforjoy

We slowly made our way back to shore, turned in our equipment, then jumped the tram to the picnic area of the adult beach - Serenity Bay. We ran into our good friend/favorite server Nicholai (from Palo) and had a fun lunch. After lunch, one thing became clear immediately – we were exhausted. A clue to that was the fact that we ate our all our lunch without speaking a single word to each other. This was not in an angry, I’m-not-speaking-to-you, way but rather just because we didn’t have any energy to both talk and eat. So, we chose to eat. This is highly unusual, especially for me.

Up next - back to the ship for our last half day.

[stefa70 205]

Still loving the report.

Good job on the run and actually earning a medal.

Love Ray in his snorkel gear!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Yes, good job on earning a medal!

But bad job on not getting a photo of it!

Good job finding Mickey. But what about Minnie? Did you find her?

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Last half day? You mean it's coming to a close already??

[Southern Blessings 4]

Don't blame y'all for being so tired, that was a lot to do that early! Yay for the medal and for finding Mickey!

[lklasing 16]

Before we totally leave the island, here is a picture of the medals we got from the race (familiar to those who read TCD’s cruise report):

So, we caught the tram back to the ship, where we headed back to the room and were slightly disappointed to see that our room had not been made up yet. Our stateroom host had been great the whole rest of the trip, though, so we just adjusted our nap plans. Eventually wound up on deck 4 where we both took a big ol’ nap. Ray was snoring at one point, and he said that I had that crinckled look on my forehead that means I’m napping very well. Here’s proof, as I’m not too proud to show you:

It was a good nap. The older I get, the more I appreciate a good nap.

Meanwhile (and until around 2:30 that night), the girls were having a ball with their friends from the Vibe. Miscellaneous pictures:

Okay, and I was wrong in my last update. THIS is the guy who supposed to be in the movie Step Up. Anyone with teenage daughters, please confirm for me!

At 3:00, we met again with our DVC representative and pretty much signed our life away for some points at Saratoga Springs Resort. I can’t believe we did it, but we both really believe it makes sense for us even though the girls are so much bigger than they were when we became Disney fanatics. We’re looking forward to using the points, hopefully for a 20 year anniversary trip to Aulani. :wave1:

After our meeting with the DVC guy, we had time to catch the afternoon live production of Believe. It was fabulous! It was the only show we saw and I hated that we didn’t see more – there were just too many other fun things to do! After the show, we ran into this guy:

Afterward, we changed for our last dinner at Palo. Yes, believe it or not, we went there three nights in a row. We actually had reservations at Remi but wound up deciding that cruise life is too short to spend 3 hours on any given meal. So, we happily switched to Palo, again with no trouble at all getting a reservation. We do try to conserve and not blow everything (money-wise) when on a trip, but Palo is something we decided is a no-brainer. It is $20/person (plus drinks, but you would pay them for wherever you eat). So, my personal recommendation is to pay the $20/person and go to Palo. Since we never did it, I can’t give an opinion about whether Remi is worth $75/head or not, but I suspect it is. Nevertheless, I sure am glad we kept on going to Palo. It was excellent every single time, and different each time as we chose different items.

Of course, first we had to stop at Meridian, where Ray looked very sophisticated drinking two different martinis at the same time:

While he couldn’t wait on us our last night as he had just been seated with a party of 15 to take care of, we at least got to see our favorite waiter, Nicholai:

After dinner, we went back to the room for the sad, sad task of packing up and putting everything out in the hall. We could tell that Jody had been there and packed also and just hoped that Danielle had done the same in Grandmother’s room.

We were greeted by this guy:

After packing up, Ray headed back to Meridian for another drink with, as I called her, “our favorite Romanian” Alexandra.

I met G-Fab and headed to Shutters to go through all the pictures and see what we wanted. Finally, I joined Ray in Meridian and had our last drinks with Alexandra, headed back to the room for one last snack from room service (I got the cheese plate every night – mmmmmmmm), and hit the hay.

Other than the pictures we had taken on the ship, which unfortunately Tiger has possession of and I’m trying desperately to retrieve, that’s it! The departure from the ship was sadly smooth, providing us with no good reason to stay behind. We had breakfast back in Cabanas, left the ship, went through customs, etc., and all the sudden were out on the sidewalk waiting on Sunray to pick us back up and take us to the airport.

Your last picture is what happens when you ask a 6 year old and a 16 year old what they think about the fact that they are starting school in two weeks:

And that was that. Off we went to the airport, back home, unpacked and back to work the next day. It was a really great trip. I’d go again in a heartbeat, and the great thing is that Ray would also, despite me having forced him almost against his will to go.

Thanks for reading! Sorry the updates were so few and far between. If/when I get the ship pictures back from Tiger, I’ll post them.

See y’all next time!

[DaveInTN 3,247]

:bravo:

Great report! I liked it very much, and I think you and TCD have convinced me to take a Disney cruise.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Leslie-

Great finish!

I'm glad to hear y'all loved the cruise so much.

That is awesome that you got to eat in Palo three nights in a row! That is crazy!

I hope it won't be long until your next trip.

:bravo:

Great report! I liked it very much, and I think you and TCD have convinced me to take a Disney cruise.

Dave-

That is good news!

You know, your girls are growing fast. I think you should go soon.

TCD

[Southern Blessings 4]

Awesome report! I'm gonna see about a Disney cruise too!

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

Leslie, I really enjoyed this TR as I do all of your TRs. Your family looks like so much fun!

[4mickey2 41]

i deserved a nap after that full day! you guys did great on the 5k! even though you got plastic medals---you have something many of us don't have. :jumpforjoy

i was mostly looking at pics but, thought that finding the hidden mickey was really cool. great tr!

[Lou... 3,118]

Good job on the run and actually earning a medal.

A TCD zinger.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Really enjoyed your TR! Thanks again!

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Great TR! I noticed your daughter's Sparty shirt during the 5K.

We'll let that one slide since you wrote a good TR for our entertainment!