Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Disney Cruise Day 6...

Our cruise was almost over. You can see the recap of days one, two, three, four and five.

Thursday was out last stop in Cozumel, Mexico. We set off from Costa Maya later Wednesday night and arrived in Cozumel early Thursday morning. Since our planned activity meet at 8:45 there was no running on the ship for me, I just couldn't get up before the sun.

We got the girls up and got everything ready and headed up to the buffet for breakfast. Seriously, I would kill to have someone willing to cut up fresh fruit for me every morning. The watermelon on the buffet has been amazing.

We meet up for our excursion and headed off the boat. We were going on an underwater exploration, Josh convinced it would be a real submarine. When we got there, it was right next to another Carnival cruise boat, it was a regular boat with windows down below.

I was surprised by the number of very small children in our group. A small confined space where you are going to look out the window at fish and underwater sea life just doesn't sound like the type of thing that would keep small children entertained for the hour or so we were down there, and it wasn't.

We saw some fish...

Afterwards, we headed back to the boat and did a little shopping on the way. We got back on the boat and grabbed some lunch. We decided to go to the pool since there were lots of people still off the boat, and we hung out for a little while and watched Mulan.

Dinner was semi formal and we were back at the Parrot Cay, they had lobster on the menu tonight. After the boat took off from Cozumel we have had rough seas. All through dinner we could feel the boat rocking, and even during the show. It has been so nice to not notice the boat all week because this would not have been so fun all week.

There was an alligator waiting for us in our cabin.

Tomorrow is the last day at sea before we get back to Galveston on Saturday morning. It doesn't seem possible that the week is almost over...

 

Monday, October 29, 2012

Disney Cruise Day 5...

I have done a horrible job of finishing my vacation recaps. You can see days one, two, three and four here.

It's about 10:30 on Wednesday morning. I am sitting in a comfy lawn chair on deck 4 watching the ocean go by. It's a bit like being on a moving sidewalk. This is the deck that I've been running on and the sun is on the other side of the ship. There is a bit of a breeze and its not unbearably hot.

 

We are on our way to Costa Maya, and we should be able to see land pretty soon.

Josh and Carson were signed up to go on a dune buggy excursion. They headed out but were disappointed when it got cancelled early because a storm came through the area they were headed to.

Camy and I headed to the dolphin swim excursion. It was amazing. The storm came through where we were but we were already in the water and it was just raining. It was actually warmer in the water than out of it. Maybe those dolphins were peeing in the pool.

We both got to kiss the dolphin, get a kiss in return, dance with the dolphin, give him a hug and go for a belly ride. Our dolphins name was Quinto and he was amazing. If you ever have a chance to do this, you should. It's not something you will ever forget.

We got back to the boat and discovered that Josh and Carson were already back so we got cleaned up and went to play some games.

Dinner was back in the Animator's Palate. We were a bit more casual than the first time.

We had a small incident at dinner. Camy got a little gagged on her chicken and threw up. I guess it's not a real vacation until someone pukes. She said she didn't want anything for dessert and that's what she got.

Our waiters were awesome the whole week.

We went to the show after dinner and had a little lobster in our room afterwards.

We only had a couple days left so I'll get on those recaps. I am sure you can't wait to hear about the worst excursion ever.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Disney Cruise Day 4...

My recap of events on our vacation are pretty slow in coming. You can read about days one, two and three if you missed them.

I had high hopes for getting up and getting a run in early. I was up before 7, and got to feel when they were dropping the anchor off Grand Cayman. We are at the back of the boat, I can't imagine how loud it would have been in the front.

When I got up to Deck 4 I was disappointed to see that they had the track blocked off at the front of the boat. I guess when you are dropping anchor they don't want people running through the area. I headed to the fitness center and had a view of Grand Cayman while I was on the treadmill. My three miles weren't too brutal with the view.

We hit the buffet for breakfast, I just love having someone else to make my eggs for me. We fueled up and headed back to our cabin to get ready to go ashore.

We had signed up to go to Seven Mile Beach for the afternoon. Grand Cayman is our only stop that we had to take a boat to shore.

Apparently, they don't want to disturbs the choral reef, that reef seemed to prevent big waves at the beach we went to.

Even without the waves the beach was beautiful. The water was crystal clear, and the beach was beautiful white sand.

We spent a small fortune on a bucket of Heineken, and some fried foods from the bar. I got too much sun, got a little tipsy on the bucket of beer, and then packed it up and headed back to the boat.

We even saw a real pirate ship on the way back to our boat.

We got checked back in on the boat, got through the medal detectors and headed back to our cabin to clean up. Carson was the only one that got a nap, the rest of us watched a little tv. We had already planned to go to the buffet for dinner so we took out time getting ready.

It's pirate night, and we didn't bring any pirate gear. The buffet was a sit down dinner tonight, which kinda bummed us out. I would have pictures if I had actually taken my camera to dinner. The rum soaked chocolate cake i got for dessert was amazing. Camy was not impressed though. Because my kids have to have self serve ice cream before and after every meal, we got cones after dinner.

Now we are hanging out in our room and it will probably be an early night. They are supposed to have fire works later but I am worn out from the sun and might not be able to stay up that late.

Tomorrow we will be in Costa Maya.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Disney Cruise, Day 3...

In case you missed days one and two...

Instead of going to the buffet for breakfast we went to the Mickey breakfast. It was in the same restaurant we will eat dinner in tonight, while we were eating we got to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Chip & Dale. They came by each table and posed for pictures and signed autographs.

Since I didn't get up to run before breakfast, we headed to deck 4 after breakfast. Josh and the girls tried shuffleboard for about 30 seconds and then just relaxed while I got in three miles. It was a little more crowded today, and was pretty warm but I got them in in under 26 minutes.

Afterwards, while I was relaxing and trying to cool down, Josh and the girls headed to the pool. I got showered and headed up to meet them. They said the water was freezing so we hung out on deck 10 enjoying the sun for a little bit.

We went down to a button making class and got to see a bunch of dolphins swimming along side the boat. They didn't sit still for pictures very well.

Xxx

Then, because it had been almost 4 hours since our last meal, we headed to the buffet for lunch. When we get home I'm not sure ill survive going back to meals without dessert. Nap time followed and I headed off to get my massage.

After one of the best massages I've ever had, followed by a really hard sell, I was done in the spa. I just don't have $60 to spend on shower gel that they say will prevent sore muscles.

I meet up with Josh and the girls and helped Camy beat Josh at chess. Dinner was in the same restaurant we had breakfast.

Before we went to see Magic Dave, we stopped in and watched a little Who Wants to be a Mousekateer. Magic Dave was really funny, in a kid friendly way. I guess he had an adult show the night before and it made Josh and I sad we missed it.

It was a great second full day at sea. We called it an early night and were very excited to see land again on Tuesday.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Disney Cruise Day 2...

If you missed day one,you can find it here. I tried to type up my posts each day so I wouldn't forget anything.

After a great night of sleep, I got up a little late and went for a short run. It was a little after 7, which was really too late, but I got 9 laps on deck 4 for three miles in under 26 minutes. Apparently my Garmin doesn't work well in the Gulf of Mexico because it said I did over 7 miles. Even my speediest of friends couldn't manage that. The deck where the track is is pretty nice. It's a little enclosed in the front and back of the boat which made it a little warm, and then I could run one side with the wind and the other side against it.

We headed up to the buffet for breakfast, which was yummy. We got some good pictures, of course.

Afterwards we did a little shopping and then headed up to the pool.

When it got a little stormy we headed in.

We went and played a little Jenga and waited for some Disney trivia, where we realized we suck at Disney trivia. Do you know how many trinkets Ariel had, or which hand Captain Hook was missing? Well those are just a couple that we did not know.

Afterwards, there was more food. We had lunch at the buffet and then I was ready for a nap. Josh and the girls went and did some exploring.

It was still rainy and dreary outside, so we went to see The Avengers. The movie theater was packed. Dinner was formal tonight, so we all got dressed up.

We ate at the second of the three restaurants on the ship, Animator's Palate. Carson had the chicken strips she had last night, Camy and Josh had steak, and I had veggie lasagna. The best part of every meal on the Disney Cruise is the dessert.

We went to see the live show, it was a re-imagined version of the happily ever after of Cinderella. Carson and I have called it a night and are relaxing in our cabin, Josh and Camy have gone to check out some karaoke. There is no worry of us missing anything real entertaining, Josh hasn't drank enough to want to do any singing.

Our towel origami tonight was an elephant.

Carson is determined to have them use her sunglasses tomorrow.

We have another full day at sea tomorrow, and I am hoping there will be no more storms. Apparently, the ones we were in today were too big to be avoided. It's a good thing there is so much to do inside.