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]

While we were getting ready to get off the ship, Geoff and Pete already had started their adventure.







They we weren’t the first to go in their session, so they got to see a few before taking their turn.

Pete went up first of the 2 of them though.

 

[jenseib]

They were given an option to have a toe dip when they came back down and they both chose to do it.



And then it was Geoff’s turn.

 

[jenseib]

Coming in for the toe dip.



Touch Down!





It appears they went up fairly high and they said each turn was a good amount of time. They both enjoyed this quite a bit and were very happy they did this. I still think it looks scary, but there is a part of me that wants to try it. That crazy part that I keep locked up and the key hidden!


It was time for us to get off the ship and head to our Port Adventure. I think Rob had to run back to the room for something, so Gail, Claire, Alexis and I got off and walked slowly.





We grabbed some towels to take along and spotted some characters, but the girls did not want to stop.



Um I swore we got pony tails holders for the girls, but obviously we didn’t put them in their hair at this point.





It was sad to see the brown up close, but I knew the island would bounce back soon.



And then we spotted him! My boyfriend, my future husband, the man I am leaving Skip for …..Captain Jack Sparrow.

 

[jenseib]

I was informed I was not allowed to stop and see him at this point. The line was too long. What kill joys!

Hi Honey!





I did however stop at the little hut to inquire about the jet ski excursion.



I didn’t have many people in front of me, but they were so slow, asking so many useless questions. Well they were useless because they didn’t pertain to what I needed! LOL

Finally I got up there and was told that the jet ski sign up was actually right up next to the jet skis. UGH. Wasted time!

I did however have the girls stand for a picture.

I think Rob did catch up with us at this point and we were off. We now were getting a little too close to our own port adventure time and needed to make some tracks.

 

[jenseib]

We now are heading to our excursion. This was something Claire had REALLY been looking for. Over a year ago I got a Castaway Cay Poster that showed snorkeling. Claire asked about it and I told her that they had a few options of snorkeling on the island. She was sold and said she must try it. After doing some research, we decided that it needed to be something easy for Claire since this was her first time. We also thought the stingray feeding looked neat and that offered snorkeling after it. We went with this. I had read mixed reviews on it. Most said it was neat, but not something they would do more than once. I will tell you now, I agree with that review.
When it came time to make our excursions online, I picked ours out right away. Gail was undecided, but I let her know the things we were planning on doing. She ended up going with the same things. She figured that Alexis would enjoy this as well.

So we were heading to do the Castaway Ray Stingray Adventure. Now you know me. I took pictures along the way, of course.









Let’s just say there wasn’t much time for slacking. Gail got my mother’s genes. If you need to be somewhere at a certain time, you are not going to waste time getting there. Gail was doing a major power walk and it took all I had to keep up with her and take pictures at the same time.



Notice Gail’s bag? She got that gene from my Mom too. She can pack a bag! I swear you can say, “I need a razor blade, an onion and some rope” and Gail would have all of those things in her bag. If she didn’t, my Mother would. LOL!



A look back at the ship and the jet skis.





We arrived!



We were given our gear and told to take a seat on a bench.
Alexis modeled the look for us.



I think we made a quick dash to the bathrooms before it started as well.
We settled in then and waited for the class to start.

 

[jenseib]

The class was informative and since I knew next to nothing about stingrays, I found it interesting.

Soon it was time to head out to feed the rays. We picked a table to feed them and watched them swim around. I believe we had the 2nd feeding of the day, so they were still pretty hungry and they were swarming the area.









We were instructed how to hold the food and were to place our hand. The girls were a little iffy about this. We also were told they might slightly bite, but they don’t have teeth, so it wouldn’t hurt.

We got comfortable by petting them first. They felt so weird. Very soft and velvety. I think Rob and I took the plunge first and fed them.

 

[jenseib]

What a weird feeling that was. It was like a suction or vacuum. Very strange. And then I was the first ….yep to get bitten! I had my knuckle slightly bent and when the ray came to take the food he got my knuckle as well. I screeched out of surprise and yelled “I got bitten!” Not a smart thing to do around kid’s who all had a look of horror on their faces. I quickly said, “It didn’t hurt, just surprised me and felt weird.” Luckily it didn’t scare anyone off.





Over the course of the feed, Rob also got bitten. He said he had his knuckle bent as well and agreed it was more shocking than anything.

After we filled the bellies of the rays, we then were allowed to go and snorkel with them. We instructed the girls on what to do and how to breathe. Both were instant pros. I was really impressed, amazed and proud at how fast they caught on to this.
Now for the down side …pretty much all you will see here are stingrays and a few random fish. It’s not an exciting snorkeling spot at all. The girls enjoyed it as they knew no difference, but we all have snorkeled before and got bored with it fast.



My little fish.







A few adjustments.



And then we have to have a picture of us looking our best.

 

[jenseib]

There’s Rob!





Rob had found a few fish, so we headed over his way.





Swamp Monster Claire.



A shell!





Claire once again.



We were instructed that when you walk around you had to shuffle your feet so you didn’t directly step on a ray as they like to bury themselves in the sand.

 

[jenseib]

This fence is around the area to keep the rays inside from what I was told. I heard it broke during the hurricane, which is why the cruise before us didn’t offer this excursion. They had to round up the rays again and get the fence repaired.





Gail’s’ family.



Alexis found a shell.



I had applied rainex to my camera lens before the Sept. cruise, and it worked really well, but I notice it must’ve been wearing off now as I had more spots on my camera today. I need to remember to reapply some more for a future trip.







We started to get cold and had seen all we wanted to see, so we did get out a little earlier than we had too, but not too much earlier.

We enjoyed this excursion, but it won’t be something I’ll be doing again. The feeding was fun, but the snorkeling was not. Claire did learn how to do it and that was a plus. But what we actually saw was pretty much nothing and for the price of this, there should be more. We will however be snorkeling again in the future and I now know Claire can handle it and we can do one that is more exciting.

 

[acrab3t]

[/quote]

This is my favorite spot at AKL. Your photos are making me "home"sick.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

We debated between the sting ray feeding, parasailing or going in on the cabana on the girls cruise in Sept. We're opting for the cabana. I want to do the sting ray feeding but my sister is deathly afraid of them. We fed them once at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa and one tried to jump out of the water at her so she screamed that he was flapping his wings at her and ran away lol so needless to say she would NOT want to do this excursion!!

Love the pics of CC. I think our room is on the Starboard side so when the ship docks, we won't be facing CC (I think that's right anyways)

 

[farrellbarrel]

The picture details are great, I love them!

 

[jenseib]

Sorry I have been missing in action. I just got back from a trip to Colonial Williamsburg and the week or so leading up to that trip were quite busy as well. I do have lots of updates though to post.

 

[jenseib]

This is my favorite spot at AKL. Your photos are making me "home"sick.

Aww thanks. We really enjoyed it there. We had such a great resort day.

 

[jenseib]

We debated between the sting ray feeding, parasailing or going in on the cabana on the girls cruise in Sept. We're opting for the cabana. I want to do the sting ray feeding but my sister is deathly afraid of them. We fed them once at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa and one tried to jump out of the water at her so she screamed that he was flapping his wings at her and ran away lol so needless to say she would NOT want to do this excursion!!

Love the pics of CC. I think our room is on the Starboard side so when the ship docks, we won't be facing CC (I think that's right anyways)

Too funny. Starboard side is usually the side that faces out toward the island. Port faces where you exit the ship. usually...

 

[jenseib]

The picture details are great, I love them!

Thanks so much

 

[jenseib]

After our Stingray Adventure we headed out to find the family. Now we had no meeting place what so ever and were just winging it. We found a spot and sat down and within seconds Geoff found us and took us over to where the rest were sitting. We set our things down and then Rob, Alexis, Claire and I had a mission. At breakfast I had asked Rob if he was interested in doing the jet skis and Gail answered for him “Yes he is!” So the 4 of us were off to sign us up to do that later in the day.

Rob is also a fast walker and wow! Walking in the sand fast will give you a great workout!
We found the spot to sign up and they had PLENTY of openings for the day and they told us that the CM’s on the ship always tell people they only have so many double rider jet skis, but the fact is, ALL of them seat 2. She told us that in the future, just book it right on the island and you won’t have any issues. I think we signed up for the 12 PM session, which was about an hour away. We had to sign some waivers and give our room numbers, etc. And then I pocketed my receipt and then the lady said something about all being 8 and older. OOPS! Wait! Um no, Claire is one month shy of 8. And I am honest and told her that. Rob quickly chimed in that she was a big 7 and actually almost taller than his daughter who was almost 9. The lady said, well if anyone asks, she is 8 today! WHEW!!! That could’ve been a bit of a heartbreaker for Claire. At this point she was getting excited about doing this.

We headed back to the family once again and played for a bit.



And shells were also collected. For some reason, Claire just kept bringing me more and more shells and when she wasn’t looking I would throw them the other way. LOL





Time flew by and soon Rob mentioned it was time to go check in for our excursion. I turned around and looked back and they were already on their way. Holy cow!



I found out later why Rob was moving so fast. Alexis was doing a bit of whining about this excursion. She has jet skied before and sometimes she likes it and sometimes she gets scared. Today she was feeling scared. He was getting annoyed as he knew she would have fun, but she wasn’t letting up on it either.

Of the 4 of us, Claire was the only newbie to the jet skis. I actually used to own one many years ago, but it was a smaller tamer version, so I was a bit nervous at how fast we would go. I did know that Claire would have a good time though.

We arrived and got signed in and got our life jackets on.

We waited for the group before us to come in and we got a few instructions. I had to laugh how some came right in and a few were WAY back coming in very slowly. Then I reminded myself that I might be one of those persons in our group.



Soon it was time to pick a jet ski and take off.

 

[jenseib]

I will tell you now, it’s really hard to take pictures while on a jet ski, so I didn’t get a lot and the ones I did get are not very good.





I easily got the feel for the ski and things came right back to me. No worries at all. In fact I was wishing we were going faster.
We had to go in single file and keep a distance between each ski as well. We would ride to certain areas and then stop. After the first sop, we kind of rearranged ourselves so that the slower people fell to the back.
Each time we stopped, we had to turn off our jet ski to we could hear the guys talk. Even then, with the waves crashing around and our skis bobbing it was really hard to hear them.



The waves were moving us all over too and it was easy to bump into each other just sitting still.

I must say this was really fun. I wanted to go faster, but we weren’t allowed to. Also no wild tricks were allowed, but I did try to hit the wake off of Rob’s wave runner and get a little height in some jumps. Claire was squealing in delight behind me. The downside to this was lots of saltwater in my mouth and eyes.

One of our stops was on a sand bar. I knew before the guy told us. I said to Claire, “Look, you can see the bottom”.



Of course the water spot on this picture is right over Rob and Alexis.





We made a stop near the island and were told about the Mangroves. My jet ski REALLY liked the mangroves. It kept floating over to them. I wasn’t sure what to do. We weren’t supposed to start our jet ski’s while they talked, but I knew I was too close. Finally they did tell me to move and I did. And sure enough, I started floating right back.

 

[jenseib]

We then headed back. It was so funny how long our line was. Several of us were up towards the front. Some maintained a good mid speed and then a few were WAY behind and they looked terrified!

On this long about way back I really tried to do as much legal play as I could, and I noticed Rob was doing the same. We would try to run into the wake of the ski in front of us to get a bit of air with a jump. It was so much fun and Claire just giggled and laughed and held on for dear life! This really made me miss the days of going out every week or two and riding wave runners on a nearby lake. That was back in the days when my older 2 were young and they loved it too.

All too soon this came to an end. It was so much fun and I am so happy we ended up doing this on the spur of the moment. Now price wise, this is kind of high and I believe you are out there just under an hour. But to hear Claire squeal like she did, it was worth every penny. She talked non-stop about it too. She couldn’t wait to go back to school and tell her friends all about her Castaway Cay day. They were NEVER going to believe it!
Oh, and Alexis had a good time too. Rob did say she was complaining a bit when he was doing some small jumps, but she still had a good time.



While we were getting wild out on the ocean, the rest of the family was having some beach fun.

Mom and Dad had brought Abby out. They had spent some time in the pool earlier, but she was ready for the beach. Gail had to slather her with some sun screen.



Who would’ve known that one of the highlights of the beach is a brown palm hanging low enough to grab?



Foolishly, Gail is taking her away from it too.











We caught up the family then. I believe they had all gone to eat while we were away, so we decided we better go get some lunch too. I did not take a single picture of my food. I set my camera down and my mind was set on food and never picked it back up to come along.

We had the basics though. Hamburgs, Hotdogs, chicken, ribs, potato salad and a few other items and about 15 of my favorite chocolate chip cookies.

We chatted about the fun we had and soon the girls were ready for ice-cream. I asked if they needed help, but no, Alexis assured me she knew how to do it and she would help Claire too. So they walked the short distance to each get a cone and after a few minutes they came back. I REALLY wish I had my camera now. The cones that came back were HILARIOUS!!!!! Obviously neither one of them knows how to make a cone. But Alexis’ was REALLY bad. It looked like she was making it sideways. This thing was defying gravity in all possible ways. It was the UGLIEST ice cream cone I have ever seen. We were just laughing so hard. Claire’s wasn’t very pretty either, but it was a little better. And they both put so much ice cream on the cone that both could only eat about half before they got sick of it.

We then headed back to the beach and we had a couple of floats, so the girls went out with Geoff to play in the water.



At some point in time, Gail and I went to one of the shops. That actually might have been before we went off to jet ski. She wanted to get something, but I don’t remember what, but I found a cute shirt and it was on clearance. SCORE! I didn’t have my Key with me, so Gail bought it and I paid her later. I think I also bought a magnet from the island as well. Gail purchased a few things as well.

Mom and Dad kept telling me to go get them a beer. I kept joking with every family member who walked by that they should go get Mom and Dad a beer and someone actually went and did it. I can’t remember who though. After a bit I got jumpy and went for a walk and made a stop for a drink for myself. I was going to get a beer, but I got a strawberry daiquiri instead. It was just OK and again, I didn’t take a pictue of it, but I did take pictures of the bar.

 

[jenseib]

They were on island time too, because even though it wasn’t busy, it took quite a while for them to make it.



Taking pictures with a drink in hand is not easy, so I just randomly shot.

















I took a walk over by Cookies BBQ Too and got a few shots.