Focusing on numismatics, and commenting upon current legal and world events, not to mention asides into the world of scuba diving, flying, and fine firearms.
Our last day at Disney was dedicated to the smallest park they have, Hollywood Studios.
We had left our luggage and all bags at the hotel and traveled light for this one. You know what that means - yep, a sudden torrential downpour and no umbrellas.
e went to the Star Tours ride first. Last time Leah was 5 and didn't enjoy the experience. This time the story was different and felt less rough and shaky compared to last time and all 4 of us enjoyed it a lot, it was very well done indeed. Can't wait for Disney's Star Wars park to open.
Then we did the Great Movie Ride which was a fun relaxing tour of some great scenes of timeless films and a brief history of the silver screen.
We did the Toy Story Mania ride and had fun blasting things.
Then we headed back to the hotel, retrieved our luggage from the storage area and caught a Disney bus to the airport.
Amazingly Spirit was actually on time and we arrived in Detroit Early. Baggage handling, what seems to be a perennial problem for every Spirit flight I've been on, was as expected, sluggish.
That ended our End of School Year Disney Trip.
In short, Disney was magical - the Coronado was a great place to stay, the staff there was great and welcoming and made it an excellent place to rest in between Park visits. The parks all had different aspects and everyone found rides to their liking and it was an excellent family time together.
The Kali River Rapids ride was our first ride of the day, and as a water ride there was perfect for a hot day, and Sunday was a scorcher.
Heck, it was so nice we rode it twice and got well and truly soaked and enjoyed it profusely.
After that we wandered about the park seeing many of the animal exhibits, including a walking path that had these two birds acting rather curiously:
They were resting right on the path, not moving, and there was a Disney cast member right there to make sure no one messed with them. They basically were sunning themselves and had picked up a habit of regularly just laying there and watcing the people walk around them without a care in the world.
We then did the Kilimajaro Safari ride which was quite cool - you get a guided tour on a truck through a land filled with impressive animals, some of which get quite close sch as the Ostrich that tried to play chicken with our truck.
I mean, who doesn't love seeing a baby elephant?
We then went to ride the newest roller coaster, Expedition Everest. Unfortunately, Leah decided at the last minute to bail out and I had to go with her. I think she got a bit freaked form all the screams coming from the coaster. Abby and Tash went on it and Tash really did not enjoy the experience much. Apparently going backwards in the dark on a fast roller coaster will do that to people. I believe her words were "I'm never getting on that thing again!". Leah regretted that she bailed out so we will have to come back and do it again someday.
Animal Kingdom's newest exhibits are the rides from Avatar - The World of Pandora.
Right as we headed to the world of Pandora however it began to rain rather heavily.
While Avatar was a neat movie from a special effects standpoint, its overall theme of "Dances With Smurfs" hardly made it an enduring tale nor does it have a tight Disney connection. Most people today if you ask them about Avatar are hardly going to rank it in the realm of great or especially memorable movies. I do have to wonder why they decided to spend four years building Pandora. Now the Star Wars theme park they're working on, that makes sense from a cultural and thematic perspective, Pandora, not so much.
We could not get Fast Passes for either of them and we waiting in line in the wet for the Navi River Journey ride as at 2 hours it was a shorter wait than the more exciting ride of the Flight of Passage with a two hour forty-five minute wait and the kids were not going to wait for that. Two hours in the rain was enough, thank you. At least the waiting area was full of interesting Pandora-like scenery and fake Pandora plant life that made it interesting:
It's an awesome spectacle and they really went all out on the scenery to make you feel like you are indeed on Pandora. But its scenery that seems to have no real overall heart. I think they'll do better when they make an immersive Star Wars park as if they take this level of detial to scenery, characters and story line it will be beyond awesome. Pandora feels like its great scenery that's missing something.
The Navi River cruise, once we finally got on it was pretty cool with lots of neat bio-luminescence and fun effects and some neat moving Pandora creatures, but to me it rated a solid Meh. At least they didn't sing "It's a Small World", but they might have sang it in Navi and I just missed the translation. Nothing scary nor a unifying story, or particularly really cool, but it provided some interesting scenery and a place to rest our tired feet. Not worth waiting two hours for I'm afraid.
After that we declared it a day.
While Animal Kingdom felt like a smaller park, we still racked up 16,921 step and 6.7 miles.
They've changed Soarin' since we last did it. It's no longer a scenic glider ride over Claifornia, it now takes you on a whirwind world tour. With dips and swoops its a lot of fun and they inject appropriate scents into the air as you fly over things. Flying over the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, and the Taj Mahal and other sites was very cool indeed and its amazing how immersive and detailed they've made the experience.
After Soarin' we did the Living with the Land ride and rode a boat through the EPCOT greenhouse.
Then we did Soarin', again. Because that's how you have a good time at EPCOT.
Then we found there were spots open in the Behind The Seeds tour which takes you for an up close and guided tour of the Greenhouse and I highly recommend it. You get to walk through the greenhouse and see everything up close.
We learned that the items grown in the greenhouse are indeed used as food at the parks.
We started in their bio technology area where they are using natural predators to defeat agricultural pests - for example they use a parasitoid wasp to control leaf miners and we got to seee a time lapse video of the process. Yes, parasitoid wasps were the foundation for the creature in Alien.
Everything in the greenhouse is grown hydroponically, and mainly vertically to save space.
Cucumbers for example.
We then got to sample a cucumber and they were some fo the best cucumbers ever with a lot of flavor.
One of my favorite agricultural plants was there:
We also got to feed the Tilapia they fish farm there:
Lots of neat things to see, including some huge winter melon and an 9 pound lemon.
We learned a lot about hydroponic and drip agriculture, and fish farming, so it was rather interesting and educational tour that was done very well.
We had then originally planned to go to all 11 World Showcase national pavilions and eat a dish at each one. A good plan but execution was lacking as we were beyond full by stop 6. We did get Viva Puffs at the Canadian pavilion, Fish and Chips and a nice Ale for me at Britain, fine French delicacies at France, Mint tea and baklava and the Morocco pavilion. I highly recommend the fish and chips it was most perfect. We did make it to all the pavilions and did a fair bot of shopping at the Japan pavilion and saw first a very cool acrobatic performance and then a nice short film at the China pavilion about, yes you guessed it, China.
Then we did the Spaceship Earth ride which was a nice relaxing way to rest our tired feet and learn some things about the history of communication technology.
Then we stayed for the fireworks show, but wow we were completely wiped by the end.
We had planned out our 4-day-long-weekend trip to Disney planning to go to one park per day. We didn't bother with the expense of a Park Hopper pass as there's more than enough to do for a day in each park.
We woke up to a beautiful morning:
After we got up, we went to the main pool at the hotel and enjoyed the water slide.
On the way there we walked by the pond which had these prominent warning signs, likley put up after that unfortunate incident of the unfortunate child and alligator encounter last year:
We had breakfast poolside and Leah had to have the Mickey waffles - which really were excellent.
In fact we found all the food at Disney to be very good indeed with some of it simply outstanding - The food at the Maya Grill certainly was the night we arrived. The only reason we didn't pack on the pounds this trip was due to all the walking we were about to do around the parks.
We put on our magic bands and got a Disney shuttle from the resort to the park.
Magic bands are Disney's latest stroke of genius - each band is its own chip and pin system that not only has your park tickets and acts as your room key, but when tied to your credit card lets your purchase anything you want at a park or resort by placing the band on a scanner and entering your PIN. No need to carry a wallet or cash around the parks - and it has the neat effect, from Disney's standpoint of the feeling that you're not paying with real money at the time so you're less concerned about the cost. Simply brilliant.
We had arrived at the Magic Kingdom:
We did the Pirates of Caribbean ride first, and they've added to it since we lat rode it and added much more of the movies to the ride which made it even more fun.
We then did the The Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride and it was pretty cool to see them enjoy it since they last rode it five years ago.
Of course we had arrived in Disney's rainy season so each afternoon it variously drizzled, poured or combinations of both so umbrellas came in handy.
It started raining right after the Magic carpet ride, so we went indoors for the It's a Small World ride.
Then it was off Futureland was a ride on Buzz Lightyear, a fun cartoon shoot-em-up game that, while it kept pausing for some reason, was fun for everyone. After that was a relaxing ride around Futureland on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover which gave some nice elevated views and ran us through various rides in Futureland.
Then we did the new Dwarf Mine Train roller coaster - we didn't have a Fastpass for it so we stood in line for 2 hours and 45 minutes but Leah really wanted to ride it so we hung in there and then had a very fun roller coaster ride. Some yelling and screaming was heard.
We also wanted to do Splash Mountain but it was sadly closed due to technical difficulties. That closure got us a FastPass to ride Thunder Mountain, Magic Kingdom's signature roller coaster and it was a lot of fun too.
After 8 hours at the park we were done and took the bus back to the hotel and had dinner at the Pepper Market - cafeteria style restaurant at the resort, and we had a swim and that was Day 1.
At Magic Kingdom we walked about 5.6 miles and 15,000 steps per my iPhone, but it sure felt like more than that. We had the blisters to show for it too.
The Important Questions being: What do you to mark the end of an excellent school year by two kids with straight-As, great work ethics, and all around pretty good attitudes?
Why, take them to Disney World of course!
Spirit Airlines had a seat sale in May that could not be passed up, so we announced to the kids that we were taking them to Disney at the end of school to reward all their hard work. We also got the resort tickets and made an AirBnB reservation and a dining reservation for the night of our arrival at a Disney restaurant at a Disney Resort hotel, the Coronado Springs, near the AirBnB location.
Leah was thrilled, but Abby at first, being a teenager, thought Disney World was not cool enough for a teenager and didn't want to go. How wrong she was.
So we packed on Wednesday night and on Thursday they had their last morning of class, while I went to court for a hearing in Detroit and then rushed home as soon as it was done, and considering the hearing was running an hour late it was getting tight.
We loaded the car, dropped off Jett at the dog sitter, and rushed to the airport.
We shouldn't have been in such a rush. The plane was delayed by an hour due to weather so all our rush through traffic and security was not as necessary as the clocks had insisted it was prior to our arrival at the gate.
Then, just before we were about to board the plane, Tash got a message from the AirBnB host cancelling our reservation. Yep, just 2 and a half hours before the scheduled arrival with a reservation made in May, and the person cancels due to issues with the room. That sucks, we're about to leave for Orlando and now have no place to stay.
Oh boy.
So Tash starts discussing things with AirBnB, and I get on the line with Disney and see if there are rooms available, and sure enough Coronado Springs has some openings at pretty darn decent prices, and I jump on a room. Should have done it that way right from the start. The room included transportation from the airport, transportation from the resort to all the Disney parks, Disney bands with FastPass and hey, it's Disney. For a few more bucks we were now going in style and the customer service agent on the phone was very helpful and all was right with the world again.
So we arrive at the airport an hour after our scheduled time, but Disney transport already has us in the system and gets us to the right bus to the Coronado. Disney has this whole process down to a science and its as smooth and comforting a way to start a vacation as it can be.
I call the restaurant from the bus and left them a message that we won't be there at the reservation time due to the plane issue.
We get to the resort at 9pm, and check in, which is handled just beautifully. We then go to the restaurant, The Mayan Grill, for a really great meal. They appreciated that I had called and left a message and it was no problem at all.
Then to our room, which was nice, pretty spacious, and clean and we unpacked and got ready to hit the parks on the next day.
A more detailed report of the past few days to follow. In short kids, including teens, love Disney once you get them there.
After that great day in Puerto Rico it was time to board ship and set sail.
At the end of the Disney cruise last year we had signed up for another which got us a good deal. This would be a re-positioning cruise - starting in Puerto Rico and ending in Miami so that, aside from really enjoying San Juan last year was why we were in San Juan.
This time instead of the Disney Fantasy we would be on a smaller ship, the Disney Wonder. With half the passengers of the Wonder class ship, it offered just about as many amenities except for the Aquaduck, and it promised to have a lot in store for us.
Boarding was flawless and quick.
We could see the fort we had explored the day before from the ship as it dominated the side of the harbor.
Soon we set sail and headed to our first stop on the cruise - St. Kitts.
Yes, we first went to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my Dad and then we went to Port Canaveral and took the kids on a Disney Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, as opposed to the Western Caribbean where we took them two years ago. This cruise had stops at St. Thomas, USVI; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Disney's Castaway Cay.
We were on the same ship as last time, the Disney Fantasy. Boarding was quick and efficient and the kids loved it when on boarding every family was announced by family name and welcomed on board with clapping from the crew.
We had lunch at the Enchanted garden restaurant after we boarded and then the kids raced off to join the Midship Detective Agency and play an interactive game where you solve mysteries by going around the ship and discover clues in talking animated paintings.
After that, the rooms were opened up and we checked out our stateroom and then headed up onto the main deck to watch the ship cast off.
The pilot boat was real close to the ship the whole time.
We then attended the mandatory lifeboat drill.
After that we changed and went to see the opening show and have dinner. A towel animal (quickly named Bun-Bun) was awaiting us when we got back to our stateroom to sleep.
So we got up and found ourselves in Port Canaveral, Florida.
We dressed, did a final look around the cabin for any items and then said goodbye to the cabin and headed to breakfast with our carry-on luggage.
Breakfast was a little different this last day, it was formally served by the waiters we had for the previous dinners, was really excellent and very quick.
We said goodbye to the waiters and the kids, who had become quite fond of them gave both Amanda and Marijan hugs. We also gave them their tips, which we had bumped up above the Disney suggested standard due to their really excellent service, friendliness and how they went out of their way to make the cruise that much more enjoyable.
Then we stood in line on the ship for quite awhile, and then finally disembarked and waited in another line to clear customs. No problems, just a very long wait and line due to everyone getting off the ship at once.
We then took the bus to the airport and were over three hours early for our 4 pm flight.
The Orlando airport is awesome.
Obviously the surroundings help:
But it's not just that it is in Florida. Instead of a worn-down, unwelcoming environment like Detroit Metro Airport, Orlando Airport is laid out more like a shopping mall. The place is well organized, staff are friendly, not surly, and there's lots of shopping and decent restaurants both in front of and beyond security in the terminals. We explored around, did a bit of shopping, had lunch at the Chili's in the terminal and then went through security.
Then we went to our gate and it was again an overbooked flight. While they offered a free return ticket if you gave up a seat, they only needed one spot so they wouldn't give us four if we all switched, so we didn't. We were seated apart, I was with Abby in row 14 and Leah and Tash were way back in row 34. Unfortunately, Tash had my book in her carry on. No big deal, i chatted with Abby and we talked with the very nice lady from Ohio who was seated beside us. She had just got off a double Carnival cruise with her husband, who was in the seat ahead of us and they had had a great time. A double cruise in that first they did a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise, got off the ship for 10 minutes in Port Canaveral and immediately re-boarded their ship for a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise. Very cool.
The flight was nice and smooth and we waved goodbye to Florida below.
We arrived back at Detroit, retrieved our luggage and took a shuttle to where our car was parked. I scraped the snow and ice off and packed it and we headed out. We knew we were back in Detroit when instead of even a hello, the surly lady at the gate just said the amount that we owed for parking, took our payment and without another word opened the gate. We were home.
The cruise was fantastic. If you've got kids, Disney is definitely the way to go for a cruise. They've got it down to an art and we were very impressed with how smooth everything went and how organized they were.
The level of cleanliness on the ship was fantastic, attention to detail superb, and everyone went out of their way to make sure we had a great experience. I can't say enough good things about Disney and recommend cruising with them very highly. Simply an awesome experience the kids will always remember and Disney had plenty on the ship for adults, including no-kid areas so you could get away for some private time. I'd do it again.
We arrived nice and early to Castaway Cay in the Bahamas.
By about 9 am the ship had cleared Bahamanian customs and we were cleared to leave the ship.
It was a windy and wavy day, which made it pleasant onshore but difficult for aquatic activities.
We had signed up to do a package of snorkling, bicycling and tubing, but after briefly trying snorkeling, the waves were a bit much for the kids even in the lagoon. In addition, the wave action had really messed up the visibility in the lagoon, leaving not a lot to see.
Then a BBQ picnic lunch was served on the island and it was most excellent.
So we relaxed on the beach, and then went bicycling.
It turned out that Abby had morphed into an excellent bicyclist, and she and I did the 5km trail twice, including the part that went on the island's runway. First time I've bicycled on a runway, that's for sure. Leah unfortunately had some issues with her bike and bicycling in general so she and Tash decided to forgo the biking experience and went off tubing.
After more relaxing by the beach, it was time to go.
We then boarded the ship and cleaned up from a day at the beach.
The we had something special. Disney actually had an opportunity for those interested to celebrate Shabbat on the ship. We went to the very top deck and on the way found a family heading there. They were from Israel, had lived in Chicago and now were working in China - sop they and their kids spoke Hebrew, English and Chinese. Very nice and impressive people. We found the location and a Disney crew member was there to usher us in and reserved the room just for the service, and they had a challah specially baked for the occasion and a bottle of very good kosher wine waiting. We were then found by a few other Jewish families that were on the cruise there. We sang some Shabbat songs, said the Shabbat prayers and had a very unique experience. It was great of Disney to offer this opportunity and they really did it with class and thoughtfulness. I was impressed and touched to say the least.
Then we put the kids in the Oceaneeer's Club so they could have some fun and we started packing and preparing to go home.
We did the Disney baggage option where, if you have all your checked bags tagged and outside your stateroom by a set time, not only will they be taken off the ship for you, but they will be taken and checked on your flight so we would not see them until we arrived in Detroit. Very convenient and a great service option. This led to some frenzied packing and planning for the next day. As part of the packing there was lots of planning involved in dividing the stuff into the baggage and guesstimating so that none of the bags weighed over 50 pounds to avoid any excess baggage fees, and keeping out an outfit for that night and the next day's travels.
We had our final dinner, did a few more on-board activities and went to bed.
The ship would be docking early, breakfast would be served on-board then we would need to disembark, clear customs and get to the airport.
No Port today. We had left Cozumel in the night, crossed a time zone and were on our way to Castawy Cay.
In lieu of port activities, there was plenty to do on the ship.
After breakfast, the kids demanded to see the incredible diaper dash - a little race starring the babies on board.
Some babies took off and crawled that track toward the toy Jack-Jacks at the end like little Olympians. Others did the "You want me to do what?" or the "Hey look, squirrel" technique and didn't quite follow the lines, or indeed do anything except sit there and look adorable.
Then it was off to the magic workshop for kids, put on by Magic Dave Williamson.
First, as each kids came in, the received a piece of paper, two paper clips and a long piece of string.
The place kept filling up and soon it was standing room only, but as soon as enough kids were there even before the official start time he started enthralling them by calling kids up to do some tricks.
Then with the patience of a saint, he taught them how to do many different magic tricks and put on a mini-show and taught the kids how to do them.
He's got some amazing talent and is a truly gracious gentleman - a world class magician who is truly a class act.
Then we put the kids in the Oceaneer's Lab and headed to some adult fun - a Martini tasting.
Five different martinis awaited tasting:
First the bartender gave us the history of the Martini, and then we tried them in order - a classic Martini (Gin and Vermouth), A Dirty Martini (Vodka), A Tequila Martini, A Rum/Midori Martini, and for dessert, a chocolate Espresso Martini.
It was to be a five course meal.
The classic and Dirty Martini arrived in front of us first and were soon joined by others.
Before drinking we learned how each was made, and the difference between a shaken or stirred Martini. The bartender's secret in the case of the dirty Martini was that he didn't add olive juice, instead he muddled olives which really enhanced the flavor.
A very educational event with very good taste.
After more fun activities on the ship, including running a complete circuit of the ship with the kids on the fourth deck promenade, we went to dinner.
It was a special meal at the Animators Palate - special because everyone drew a character on a special form, the forms were collected and the characters were then animated and added to a Disney animation show. Very cool.
After the animation show ended, the kids also amazed their waiters with the tricks they had learned from Magic Dave - after the magic show, they had diligently practiced the tricks he taught them and did a good job as budding illusionists.
Dessert was, as always, awesome.
At night, Magic Dave did a late night adults-only show, and it was worth watching.
Here's an example of one of the tricks he did at the adult show:
A great time, then it was off to get ready for the next day at Castaway Cay and to get some sleep.
Day 5 saw us pulling into port on the Mexican island of Cozumel at 8:00 am.
Renowned for its beautiful reefs for scuba diving, I wasn't going to be partaking of its beautiful reefs as it was a family outing day. Some other time.
Some Mexican Navy patrol boats were tied up at the pier across from the cruise ships.
Instead of me taking off and going scuba diving, we had something special planned for the kids.
Yep, we had booked them a dolphin encounter.
Leah was too little to do the swim with the dolphin activity so we did just the encounter - so the kids, along with Tash to supervise got to stand on a submerged platform and interact with some dolphins.
I was stuck far away on the observation deck taking pictures.
The dolphins are quite well trained. Eaxch one has their own individual trainer, and they know 250 separate commands based on hand and body language.
Like this hand signal:
The dolphins each eat about 40 pounds of fish per day, much of it hand fed by the adoring kids during the encounter. Every kid fed them at least two fish each, plus the trainer was pretty generous as well:
They demonstrated how they could leap out of the water and the whole encounter ended with a spalsh.
The Dolphins then waved goodbye to end the show.
After the Dolphin encounter we did some shopping as we had plenty of time before the ship left port. Of course I had to scientifically sample the various types of tequila at the tequilleria (it got smother the more samples you had -- funny that). We bought a gift-box sampler as a gift for my dad and a bottle of Licor Limon (Lime flavored Tequila) for Tash as she liked the sample of it quite a lot -- it's practically a Margarita all on its own.
Just before sunset the ship left port, guided out to see by a pilot boat.
After arriving back on the ship it was time for a quick rest and then to participate in pirate games and prepare for the pirate deck party. Argh!
Disney made sure that awaiting in our cabin were the required "Pirates In The Caribbean" bandanas.
Even Stitch dressed up as a pirate and posed with the kids for pictures.
The deck party was a lot of fun with a fun show put on by Mickey and the gang.
In the midst of the party Captain Hook boarded and tried to take over the ship, but Mickey and the crew prevailed, with the helkp of the kids all answering the pirate quiz correctly.
At dinner, the waitstaff were also dressed in their swashbuckling best.
After that, the kids were beat and that was the end of Day 5.
