Trip Report Oh, the Places We go, The People We See

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.

That’s my Daughter Claire with me.



We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.

We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.



This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.

After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.

Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.

My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.



The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.

Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.



Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.



Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.

In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.

Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.



This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL

We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.



Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!

 

[jenseib]

The water was so nasty looking. I am not sure if this is normal or a leftover from the hurricane.



Claire and I had separated from the family while we looked around, but the place isn’t too big and we easily found them after a bit.









HELLO!



Yes, this guy said that to us and it scared the crud out of me at first. Then we both laughed.





Aren’t these guys just too cute?

 

[jenseib]

Here are a few of Geoff’s pictures.










They were having a budgie feeding, so we all decided to check that out. We had to wait for the OK to walk in and then we got apples to feed the birds with. The birds would come right to you and eat, but you weren’t supposed to let them eat the skin. We had to throw those in a bucket and then we could get new apples. We had a lot of fun here.

 

[jenseib]

Pete was the bird man. They loved him!

 

[jenseib]

This was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it, though Abby didn’t want the birds to touch her. She was more into watching them eat. Even Alexis was squeamish at times about them touching her too.

I thought this was a cool shot.





Claire and I ended up being some of the last ones in there. As people left, they kept handing off apples to Claire and she decided she was done, so she handed them off to me. I finally just took them to the lady as I wanted out too. It was fun to do, but I didn’t want to spend my whole day in here with the birds when there were other things to look at as well. And the Flamingo show was going to start after a bit, so I wanted to scope out the rest of the area before that.

 

[jenseib]

We spotted Flamingos running freely and we had to check those out. Warning, between Geoff and I, we took about 40 zillion Flamingo pictures.

 

[jenseib]

Some of these Flamingoes had a bit of an issue with each other. It was funny to see them yell at each other. It just made me think of 2 women having a fight, with lots of nasty words and head bobbing going on.

 

[jenseib]

We decided Claire needed a picture with the flamingoes.



We enjoyed just watching them run around freely.





We then walked over and took a look at the leopard.



I think he thought we looked like a tasty snack.











We followed the peacocks around a bit. I wanted a full plumage picture …. I never was lucky enough to get one.

 

[jenseib]

Geoff however, was very lucky.

 

[jenseib]

I was able to capture a few flowers here and there.

We found some bobcat looking cats. Here kitty kitty!



Claire’s goal was to go see King Julian again, so we were heading that way.







Hail King Julian!

 

[jenseib]

We made our way back just in time for the Marching Flamingo show. Mom was worried that we were going to miss it, but Claire and I got back just as they were bringing them in. No worries!





Now these are trained flamingoes. They are trained to march around and some have been marching for like 35 years. Now I am really not sure I would classify this as trained marching in my book. Now they were smart enough to know it was show time and all gathered in the ring, but as for synchronized marching, it really wasn’t that. It was more of the flamingoes running one way and then on cue running the other way. And some were defiant and refused to go along with the pack.

 

[jenseib]

It was still really fun and neat to watch and kind of funny too.





Well hello there. This guy was a bit curious with us.

While they were marching around, there was a lady on a microphone announcing things and facts about the flamingoes. I believe these guys were fed special to get that extra pink color, and I have to admit, they were beautiful.

 

[jenseib]

They then call out for volunteers from each section to come out and let the flamingoes run around them. Claire and Alexis went out, though I think Alexis was a bit reluctant. Abby was not about to be left sitting in the stands and charged right out. Jude also made his way out too. This was going to be fun!





Abby and Alexis look like they now are not sure what they got themselves into.





“Aunt Bop Bop (that’s what my nieces call me), Don’t take pictures!”



“Aunt Bop Bop, I said NO pictures!”

Um, too bad Abby, it’s what I do!

Claire notices one coming their way.





The kids from the other section were freaking out over them getting so close. It was so funny. The lady kept announcing that they were only like 30 lbs and not mean and heck, they are pink for God sakes!

 

[jenseib]

And then one got too close!



Abby was NOT having any of that! And soon we heard an announcement …”Do not touch the flamingoes!”

Look at the look she is giving them now. And Jude is starting to get slightly freaked as well.



OK, buddy, I told you NOT to come by me!

And then Abby grabbed that guy by his neck and gave him a HUGE shove! Oh my Word. I felt bad for the flamingo, but it was so hilarious! We were dying with laughter and we talk about it ALL the time. That flamingo probably told his buddies that he has been marching for 30 years and NO ONE has ever grabbed him by the neck before.

She’s really giving them the glare too.





That was enough. She had it and came back to sit with us.

 

[Bethany M]

Sooo cute! Little tiger that on is!

 

[jenseib]

Sooo cute! Little tiger that on is!

She's a stinker

 

[jenseib]

Alexis isn’t all that keen on the flamingoes either.

Claire was safely in between her 2 cousins, so no worries for her.





The kids then were allowed to sit back down and the flamingos ran around a few more times.





One of the rebels.

 

[jenseib]

See the 2 fighting on the right side? I was laughing and we were putting words in their mouths. “Did you see that girl grab my neck? I have been marching for over 30 years and NO ONE has ever grabbed my neck! I can’t believe she did such a thing”.



“I am filing a claim with workman’s comp!”



“I have never had my feathers in such a ruffle”.



“Let’s get out of here”.









That really was a fun thing to see. Not something I would want to do every trip, but I good thing to try at least once. The flamingoes are beautiful too.

 

[jenseib]

After the show we did a little more looking around.





With our tickets, we could get a free drink or snack, so we headed over to the snack bar and each got a pop. Well the rest of the family pretty much got bottle waters, but Claire and I got pops. When we got on the bus, the family noticed that the label said Bahamian water and they refused to drink it. They said after seeing the disgusting green water there, there was no way they would take a chance of drinking it. I am sure it was fine, but I wasn’t going to be the guinea pig on that one either.

We next headed towards Fort Charlotte.



We had the option of staying on the bus or getting off and taking a quick look around.
I believe this is when Aunt Mary said she was getting off to stretch and Abby comes darting down the bus aisle and says “I’m going with Murry”. We all laughed and said, “Um Murry, you have someone joining you”.
I think about half the bus got off, and Claire and I did as well. I took a few pictures. It was really neat to see, but sad to see the graffiti on the buildings.
You can see the ship from here too.







My beloved lighthouse





I love this picture.

 

[jenseib]

I took a lot of pictures with the ship in the distance.

 

[jenseib]

Dad, Rob and Alexis had walked up towards the Fort, but came right back down.



Claire and I went up there next. Now to actually go in the Fort it cost money. I think it was only like a dollar or 2, but since we had limited time there, I didn’t want to hold everyone else up by going in. I would probably get carried away with pictures inside and not pay attention to time. I believe Skip and I toured this Fort many years ago too.