Scott's Birthday Cruise-o-Fun

We're back from a 5-night cruise on the Disney Dream.  During TS Isaac.  It seemed like almost everything didn't quite go the way we had expected, and in a few ways it was probably our worst cruise, but the worst cruise is probably still better than the best day at work!

Our Stateroom was definitely the worst we've ever had.  The toilet would only flush when it felt like, which was especially problematic when I was going through some wicked lower intestinal problems on the first night.  (thing Scott probably never wants to hear again in the middle of the night: "I pooped and the toilet won't flush, so you should probably pee in the tub until further notice.")  It did flush in the morning...and then started overflowing!  We also had two different problems with the TV.

Our neighbors were so loud!  We had a connecting door with a family with a little 3-4 year old girl who was a very early riser.  She woke us up the first two mornings screaming and squealing, and we never so much as heard a "shh" from the parents.  Scott may have accidentally kicked off his shoes late at night and launched them into that wall, but I'm sure he didn't mean to...  We were also very close to the mid-ship elevators, and there seemed to be a constant parade of people running and yelling outside our door.

Pirate night ended up lasting three nights.  The original plan was to have pirate night on day 3, but they had to scrap that in the afternoon...when it was too late to change the menu.  So pirate dinner was on day 3, and then the pirate party was on day 4...but there was some sort of technical problem with the fireworks.  So they finally did the pirate fireworks on day 4.

Snorkeling was a mixed bag.  My breathing tube kept getting water in it, so I got better at blowing water out the top.  Due to the storm and the rough time we had pulling into Castaway Cay (more on that to come), visibility in the first half of the snorkel lagoon was essentially zero.  We were right next to one of the buoys marking a cool thing below and could not see a thing, and we were frustrated and annoyed.  We decided to swim up to the next buoy just for the exercise, and 5 feet later we were in clear water with tons of fish.  We saw the sunken ship, the submarine, and the Mickey statue.  AND Scott taught me how to dive down without drowning, so I was able to go down and touch Mickey's hand.  Victory!!  Things didn't go quite so well on the way back in.  We were going against the current, and it was really hard to get in.  Scott also had some sand or something in the top of his fin, and ended up with an impressive scrape across the top of his foot that gets rubbed by every pair of shoes he owns. 

I ran, but not the way I had planned.  The plan was to do the "Castaway 5k" on our first Castaway day, and I went and signed in and got my bib and waited...and waited...  It took us 3 hours to pull into Castaway, so the 5k ended up being cancelled.  Since I was already dressed, I decided to run around deck 4.  I did 2 miles, and then got showered and changed for the island.  They did the 5k again on the second Castaway day, but it interfered with our last chance to watch Brave in the theater, so I woke up at 6 and ran 3.2 miles (8 laps) on the deck.  The bonus to running on deck was the great breeze, which I've heard you don't get at all on the island.

We had great table mates at dinner, and our servers were really good as well.  The food was good, and we had a few things that were clean-plate-club good.  We did Palo for brunch and dinner on Scott's birthday, and our server had only been on the ship for 4 months.  She was incredibly nice, and you could tell she was still pretty green.  She made some really great recommendations, and we loved pretty much everything.  The only downside of Palo was the crappy weather.  We should've been looking out on blue skies and bluer seas, and instead were shrouded in gray mist that made me a little panicky and claustrophobic.

There's lots more I could share, but I've got to get ready for work. 

Odd Ends

Here are a few things floating through my head today that are too long for Twitter and too short for their own blog posts.

* When I was in the fourth grade, my family took a vacation to England.  I distinctly remember being disappointed when we returned to the US and not only did we not get to disembark the plane via staircase to the tarmac, but there was no marching band.  Apparently my only exposure to international travel had been the evening news and seeing the President and/or US Military members returning to much fanfare.  I thought of that today because this morning my friend Margaret floated into Port Canaveral aboard the Disney Fantasy, to a throng of well-wishers waving at the ship, plus media coverage and fireworks!  My inner fourth grader is very jealous indeed!  (the rest of me is jealous of the transatlantic voyage and the stop in NYC)

* Experiences (most) men don't understand:  Forgetting that you're wearing high heels, until the toilet seat is 3" lower than you're expecting it to be.  That might not sound like a great distance, but when you're falling bare-assed through space wondering who moved the toilet and bracing for impact with the ground, it's just enough for a mini adrenaline rush!

* We learned this morning that Robert Sherman died.  Even if you don't know the name, you know his music.  He and his brother Richard worked directly with Walt Disney to create music for movies from Mary Poppins to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, plus the ol' theme park classics "It's a Small World" and the theme to the Tiki Room.  The Disney Parks Blog had a lovely write-up that started with a Mary Poppins reference that made me tear up: "Today, the wind has changed and Disney Legend Robert B. Sherman has had to leave us. But the immeasurable gifts of song he has given — in that magical partnership with his surviving brother, Disney Legend Richard M. Sherman — will stay forever."  It's true - their legacy will outlive all of ours!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Scott and I went on a Disney cruise in December of 2006 to celebrate our anniversary and actually paid money for the photo below!

 

Oh 2006, why did you make my hair like that?  Actually, this was after I donated Locks of Love, so I forgive myself for the hair.  We won't discuss the arms-white-as-shawl or Scott's nearly-flesh-tone yellow shirt. Anyway, this was another of those pictures we bought but never put in a frame.  Can you blame me?

All Scott, All the Time

I just noticed that all of the pictures in the gallery at the top of the blog currently contain Scott.  I can definitively say that I have never seen this happen before!

 

Also of note: only one picture contains any sort of booze.  It seems most of the time when there is a camera-worthy occasion, there is also beer and wine.  Or a mojito.  Or a margarita.  Refresh the screen a few times and you'll see what I mean.  I guess we're both special occasion photographers and special occasion drinkers!

And in case you were wondering, the photos would be labeled "cruise, cruise, cruise, Epcot, Sea World, Studios, cruise."  Or more specifically, "Disney Wonder emergency drill, Castaway Cay/Disney Dream, Castaway Cay/Disney Dream, Epcot parking tram, Sea World penguin building, Mama Melrose's at the Studios, Disney Magic atrium."

I often find myself refreshing the blog whenever I'm blue or bored and wanting to jog happy times back into my brain, so that's why I'm so sure I've never seen this happen before.  It's like I won the Flickr slot machine or something!

Honest Review of a Preview Cruise

As I believe I mentioned before, Scott and I bought each other a 2-night preview cruise of the Disney Dream for Christmas.  The cruise was this past weekend, and we had SO much fun and ate SO much food and had SO many new experiences that nothing I could possibly type could possibly encompass it all.

The whole trip wasn't "OMG BEST VACATION EVERRRRR" by a long shot.  Our dining room servers were by far the worst I'd ever had. The assistant server was actually not bad, and would probably thrive if paired with a different partner, but the server barely spoke English, didn't introduce himself, didn't check on whether we liked everything, served me the wrong food enough times that it became comical (him: "your tuna" me: "those are beets." true story!), and literally dropped the food on the table and walked away without explaining the dish. The food was very hit and miss.  My entree on the first night was inedible, and Scott's was maybe the best thing he ate the entire weekend.  Our stateroom was missing a phone and an alarm clock.  There's a hair dryer in the bathroom, but the only outlet sized for the hair dryer was on the desk. We even had a bad service experience on Castaway Cay*.

That said, once the staff gets into the swing of things, I have no doubt that the cruising experience is going to be top-notch. 

The ship itself is exquisite, with chandeliers everywhere that sparkle like diamonds.  The art in the stairwells is beautiful, and varies from 20-foot paintings to production art from Pixar movies.  The ship also has "enchanted art," which are basically framed flat-panel screens that sense your presence and animate for a few seconds.  Walt Disney sketches Mickey Mouse, pirate ships fire cannons, and scenes from cartoons come to life.  I was absolutely enthralled, and kept pausing in front of them to watch them again and again.

The furniture in the public areas is modern and rich and beautiful. And comfortable, too. There were at least a half-dozen places I wished I had more time to sit with a good book. Alas, I had neither time nor book.  The theater and the movie theater are both beautiful, and the shows are spectacular.  There are even nightclubs where loud music and bright flashing lights have been replaced with softer tunes and puffy chairs.  And our stateroom, though a bit smaller than on the other Disney ships, was beautiful and bright with comfy furniture and plenty of storage space.

I would recommend a vacation on the Disney Dream to anyone. But not just yet. Give them six months to settle in before sailing off into the sunset.

*On Castaway, the seat literally broke off of Scott's rented bike on the farthest point on the trail from civilization, bruising his calf and scraping/bruising his stomach where he was nearly impaled by the handlebar. The only good news is that he fell forward onto the handles instead of down onto his testes. Once we walked back to the closest tram spot and rode the tram across the island, we went back to the bike rental shack where I told the worker that the bikes had been ditched. Scott asked about the location of first aid, and I asked for a refund.  He offered me another bike (no thank you) or a float rental (in January? bwahahaha), but said he couldn't give me my money back. I guess now I understand why they make you sign a release before renting!

Cruise Food

Well, I promised "something" about the cruise, this weekend, so here are some food pictures. Who doesn't love food pictures?

These first two pictures are of dessert from our first night. Really, I only took them because we were amused by the tiny strawberry pieces. Scott's dessert is the one on the left - some sort of chocolate cake thing - and mine was cranberry-orange cheesecake.

And now for some pictures from Palo. I had monkfish with mascarpone risotto and red pepper sauce, and Scott had lamb chops. We also got to try the lobster ravioli.

Palo has a "famous" chocolate soufflé that they recommend, but to me a soufflé isn't really any more special than a warm piece of cake. We had it once, just because everyone says "did you have the soufflé?" Now I can say yes, "but next time you should try the pineapple ravioli...it's amazing." And Scott loves their panna cotta so much he'll probably never order something else.

And thus concludes the gratuitous food pics from the cruise. I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of the amazing eggs benedict or Scott eating caviar at the Palo brunch. I did, however, get a picture of Scott's traditional start-of-cruise shrimp feast. Enjoy!

Nothing Under the Tree

Scott pulled out the Christmas tree this afternoon and put it up. We'll be decorating it tomorrow, adding ornaments picked up during our stay-cation in Tampa (Dali Museum melting clock, of course) and our way-far-away-cation in the Caribbean. I love Christmas, and I love our tree, even though it's too small for the angel we got last year. But this year, there won't be any gifts under the tree.

Like we did in 2008, we have decided to forgo gifts for friends, family, and co-workers and instead donate to charity. This year, we'll be giving to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. In '08, we had a lot of fun shopping for Toys for Tots, and it's something I'd love to do with my future hypothetical children. But this year I felt really strongly that our money should go to a more practical fund. Second Harvest actually provides food to other nonprofits - everything from homeless shelters to breakfast programs for school kids - and I would rather make sure that there's no one hungry on Christmas morning (and for the rest of the year) than give away toys.

But before anyone accuses me of Scrooge-ing underprivileged kids, please read on...

In 2008, we had plenty of gifts under the tree for ourselves, and this year we're buying nothing but stocking stuffers. That's because we decided to make an unexpected donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida. "Unexpected? How can that be?" Well you see...

As Disney Cruise Line prepares to bring its newest ship – Disney Dream – online, a special two-night and invitation only preview cruise will take place [...] in support of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida. As part of this one-of-a-kind sailing, 100 percent of the cruise fare will be donated directly to the organization, while select Boys & Girls Clubs children and their families from Brevard, Osceola, Orange and Seminole counties will have a unique opportunity to sail onboard.

(from the Disney Parks Blog)

Merry Christmas to us!

The money we spent on the cruise really wasn't that much more than we would have spent on actual gifts, and we justified the extra expenditure by telling eachother that the money was going to charity. I'm not even pretending that we booked the cruise strictly as a charitable donation. Scott and I have been gobbling up every story about this ship since they started hinting about the awesomeness aboard, and dreaming about the day - more than likely over a year from now - when we'd be able to get a booking cheap enough for us to afford. This also gives my inner journalist the chance to "scoop" ALL of our friends. And did I mention that the inaugural cruise is after our cruise? We're going on before all those Disney nuts who booked 2 years ago!

Plus, we'll be able to give all of you the "gift" of another vicarious vacation. Sure, I've been remiss in blogging at all about our last cruise, but aside from the ports of call (and Cozumel doesn't even count because we never even got off the ship. don't judge - it was raining AND Mexico!), it really was quite similar to the Disney Magic cruise we took in 2007. I'll put something up this weekend, I promise. But this will be a NEW ship with NEW restaurants and NEW shows!

You're welcome!

...and I hope you have some money in your budget to donate to your favorite charity. All kidding (and cruising) aside, I'm grateful that we're in a position to do so. And I know that our gift to the food bank will go to better use than a gift card or knick knack would, and that the memories we make on our mini vacation - and the ones the kids make at the local B&GC's - will last longer than a video game or jewelery would have.

The 'Dream' is a Floating Reality

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to present you with my new computer desktop image:


photo credit. there are 71 photos in the gallery, and it's definitely worth spending a few minutes there

The Disney Dream took a major step forward (while being tugged backwards) over the weekend when her Floating Out took place at the shipyard in Germany. The official Disney take on the event can be found here (along with some other cool pictures).


It's hard to gauge the size difference between this ship and the Magic/Wonder ships until you take a look at a picture of the stern. At least that was true for me. Not only is this ship 3 or 4 decks taller, it's also broader. I don't even think that there are verandas on the other ships that face that direction.



Anyway, it's pretty awesome. And apparently the first 450 crew members will be moving on board soon to get the inside sparkling and pretty. She'll be doing sea trials for the next two months, and then heading "home" to Port Canaveral for her inaugural cruise in January. I can't wait to see her in person!

In the Mood

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot (which I'm actually doing on a Monday!): Make a moody picture. By which you can use mood lighting of some sort, or possibly arty black-and-white, or whatever you need to in order to give the shot that certain moodiness. It's hard to describe, but you'll know it when you see it, I'm sure.

It's amazing what fog adds to a picture: romance? mystery? anonymity? Well in this particular case, it was just bringing the camera from the AC of our stateroom to the hot & humid balcony that made the lens fog up. But the effect is interesting.

(By the way, yes that is that dress. It worked great that evening. Sadly, it met its demise in the dryer when we got home. I don't even think a professional dry cleaner could get the pleats back the way they are supposed to be!)

Here...Sort Of

I'm here. Home from vacation safe and sound. Really though, I just don't have a whole lot to say. This was our fourth Disney Cruise in 18 months, and it was really mostly the same as the last ones. So if you're wanting pictures, or stories, please accept my lack of new text and go back and re-read previous cruise posts.


Honestly, I didn't take any pictures worth actually saving off the camera. And aside from the food at Palo (mmm... lobster ravioli with mascarpone and truffles...) and biking on Castaway Cay (my butt bones still hurt!), it was all basically the same as last time.



I did, however, manage to take this shot on Thursday morning just before breakfast. I'm guessing this is the closest I'll ever be to a rocket launch.

Blow High, Blow Low

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Snap a picture of wind. Naturally, it's difficult to get a picture of the wind itself, being that air is generally transparent. however, it's easier to get a picture of how the wind is affecting other things: hair, flags, kites, so on and so forth. You can see where I'm going with this.

OK, I was truly planning on checking out the topic of the MPS this week and going out and actually taking a picture for it. And had I checked on this earlier yesterday, I would have gotten a killer picture of the trees across the street blowing like mad. Sadly, I didn't. And so once again I am delving back into my archives from... the cruise.
The picture above is Scott, he of the plastic LEGO snap-on hair, demonstrating just how windy it was up on deck 10 on one of our at sea days. You can actually see his clothes blowing as well.

The other two pictures were taken just about a year apart, on two separate ships, but both during the "Sailabration" sail away deck party, and I'm drinking the same beverage in each - a daiquiri/colada swirl in a souvenir cup. (in the second picture I'm also holding Scott's Mojito) These pictures were also taken up on Deck 10 - one with the wind in my face, one with the wind at my back.

P.S. - bonus points to the first person who can tell me from what show the title of this post is borrowed.

...and Zoom Out

Here's the reveal for the Monday Photo Shoot extreme close up:




That tacky gold rose was actually one in a series that runs around Belle's fancy ball gown. This was one of my favorite "Jamie" moments on the cruise - standing up on the stage and getting up close and personal with these fabulous costumes.

Random Fact: The Cruise Line costumes are all created by the people at Creative Costuming at the Disney MGM Studios, and you can see into their workshop from the Backlot Tour tram ride.

Long Day

I promised my mom I'd put something up here before bed. I must say, though, that I am darn tired and was almost asleep on the couch an hour ago.

So umm... I'm just going to put up a picture. I had a fun day today, so I'll be sure to write about it tomorrow.Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

Adventures in Gluttony

Every day that goes by without cruise food is another day when I readjust to snacking on granola bars and having frozen waffles for breakfast. To that end, I thought I'd make a list of everything worth remembering about cruise food from last week.

* Shrimp! Ask anyone who spoke to Scott in the week leading up to the cruise, and they will probably tell you he was most excited about the shrimp. That was our first stop when we first got on the ship. I occasionally enjoy shrimp, but Scott loves the little suckers. The cocktail sauce on these shrimp was pretty heavy on the horseradish - my eyes watered with every bite. Yum!

* Fresh fruit! We started almost every day at the casual buffet up on deck 9. The buffet started with giant bowls of fresh fruit. Every meal, I had fresh pineapple and watermelon, and the occasional grapefruit half (pre-sliced even!).

* The breakfast buffet also had little cream cheese balls, sized perfectly for a half bagel. There was a chive selection and a salmon selection. Both were sublime!

* Soups! Once I realized just how great the soups were, I had one almost every night. I even had delicious roasted red pepper soup and mushroom cream soup - even more exciting when you consider that I don't even like red peppers or mushrooms! They also have cold soups. I tried a cold potato-dill soup, which I might crave if I ever have my jaw wired shut. It tasted like potato salad. But cold potato soup is unnatural and I only ate about half of it. Another standout was the asparagus soup. Mmm... soup!

* Risotto! If there was risotto on the menu, it was on my plate (except for the blue cheese risotto on the vege menu one night. ick!). We had the seafood risotto at Palo, a tomato version at another dinner, and I had a spectacular asparagus risotto.

* We had some pretty great entrees while onboard. Some of my favorites were the tamarind-rubbed pork tenderloin, the sesame-seared ahi tuna, and grilled flounder with a crab-hollandaise sauce. Scott's favorites included the lobster tail, a salmon dish, and a beef tenderloin dish; the details of which escape us both.

* And of course, we can't forget about the desserts! My absolute favorite from this trip was the cappuccino cheesecake from Palo. Not only was it shaped like a cappuccino mug (complete with chocolate handle), it was the best-tasting dessert of the trip. Scott's favorite was also from Palo - he had the panna cotta. We also had an amazing peanut butter and jelly brioche pudding with peanut butter sauce, creme brulee cheesecake, chocolate lava cake, a sundae with brandied cherries, and a bunch of other sugary concoctions.

I don't know about you, but just reading all of that makes me feel full!

Workers on my Vacation

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of people working outside. Because now the weather's right for it (mostly). If you have a photo in your archives of people working outside, that works too.

You know, I was hoping the MPS this week would be something I could use to flaunt more of my cruise pictures. Thank you, John!

Both of these pictures showcase the fabulous crew of the Disney Magic working hard to keep the ship umm... ship shape! Sorry, couldn't resist! The first picture is of the guys painting the bow of the ship while we were docked in St. Maarten. Wow - add that to the list of jobs I don't want! The second picture is a guy on our veranda, stripping the wood on the railing and then refinishing it. Of course, not everyone wears a yellow jumpsuit while painting. Goofy just wears his regular clothes!

Seven Days in Seven Paragraphs

Day One - Embarkation
After the emergency drill, we staked out prime spots on the very front of Deck 10 to watch the horizon move closer and drink our first tropical beverages - a daiquiri/colada swirl for me and a mojito for Scott. We even saw a manatee before we left Port Canaveral. We watched the lame "Welcome Aboard" show, and then got ready for dinner at Lumiere's. Our server team was on the ball, and we were at a table with a retired couple from Alabama (so Scott's accent came back) and a couple from Michigan. The food, as always, was delicious.

Day Two - At Sea
We managed to not sleep all morning and made it to the pool around 11 am, all lathered with sunscreen and toting reading materials and more sunscreen. This ended up being the only day we spent at the pool, since there was so much other stuff going on and because the chairs were all taken by 11 am the next day! We got a call from Palo that they had an available table for dinner that night, and we jumped at the chance to go back for more seafood risotto. This was also formal night, which worked out well for Scott - only one night in a jacket! That night's show was the Golden Mickey's. Since we had seen it on the past two cruises, we skipped seeing it.

Day Three - At Sea

Today started with our character breakfast. I love character breakfasts! We also went to a "class" today - Mixology and Fruit Carving. This was Scott's idea, for the alcohol part ("we should learn to do something with the bottles on the top of the fridge") and I tagged along for the fruit carving. So yes, we learned how to make a couple tropical drinks. The fruit carving was only a demonstration (probably better for me, since I enjoy life with ten fingers!), but WOW! I think that carved fruit is neat, but seeing it made right in front of me made me really appreciate it. It's certainly not the same as carving a jack-o-lantern for Halloween! The evening show was Twice Charmed, which was a post script to Cinderella. I LOVED it! It's my new favorite DCL show. Dinner was at Parrot Cay, and was my least favorite meal of the cruise, but the desserts made up for it. I also got to watch Cinderella 3 on the big outdoor screen while Scott read one of his James Bond books.

Day Four - St. Maarten

Our first port! Our snorkel excursion started with a bus ride to the French side of the island (St. Martin) and then a boat ride over to Pinel Island. The weather was a little wet and the waves were pretty choppy. We did see some interesting sites snorkeling, but I haven't gotten those pictures back yet. Once we exhausted ourselves in the water, we went over to the beach and chilled until it was time to take the boat/bus back to the Dutch side (St. Maarten). The island seemed way too much like Nassau for me - tourism-driven economy and all. Scott got a pretty wicked sunburn on his back - my fault I guess - and had to snorkel the next day in a t-shirt to prevent it getting worse. Who knew the sunburn wouldn't be the worst part of that day? This was the night of the Pirates deck party and midnight buffet, but we skipped it to prepare for the next morning.

Day Five - St. Thomas/St. John

St. Thomas is a U.S. port, and required a visit to Customs at 6:15. Scott woke up with a massive head cold/ear ache/sore throat and I dragged him from Customs to breakfast to our shore excursion. We also had to tender at St. Thomas (take a little boat from the big boat to the shore). Tendering sucks! It's scary for someone afraid of heights, and it's slow. On the way out, we actually got straight from the ship onto a ferry over to St. John, which wasn't quite as bad as the tender back onto the ship. The part of St. John that we were on is part of the U.S. National Park Service. Of course, this means there were no tacky tourist shops - only tacky open-air taxis. The snorkeling at St. John was the highlight of the trip for me. The surf was pretty rough, but the coral there is abundant, along with the sea urchins and a whole bunch of fish I couldn't identify. Back on board, we relaxed for the rest of the day. I went and saw Wild Hogs in the movie theater while Scott slept. And we lucked out and were by ourselves at dinner. Our table mates were nice enough, but it always feels awkward to fill an entire dinner conversation with smalltalk and was good to just talk to each other.

Day Six - Back at Sea

Scott was pretty much dead to the world today. I took the opportunity to do some stuff that he otherwise would have dreaded. I started the day with the behind-the-scenes look at the theater and actually got to stand on the stage and look out into the audience - pretty cool, even if the seats were all empty. And since they allowed photos, I took lots to show Scott what he had missed. I did the galley tour in the afternoon, which Scott was actually disappointed to miss. I took some pictures, but they pretty much showcase the same thing: lots and lots of stainless steel. I also watched two more movies, Bridge to Terabithia and The Guardian. Dinner tonight was the "Captain's Dinner," a.k.a. lobster night. I actually had seared tuna instead and it was everything that my birthday dinner wasn't - moist, tender, and perfectly rare.

Day Seven - Castaway Cay

While sitting out on deck eating breakfast, a server approached us and asked if we'd like to move inside because of the approaching bad weather. We moved inside and weren't even seated when the deluge started. Of course, this is what Scott had been expecting, since we'd never had good weather on our Castaway day. But by the time finished eating, the sky had cleared and we ended up having a fabulous day sitting on lounge chairs under an umbrella. We read and cat napped and eavesdropped on the (loud) conversations around us. The rest of the day rounded out with stupid pictures around the ship, packing, dinner, and the farewell show. The show definitely had its cheesy moments, but I'm enough of a Disney freak that shows like that always make me tear up.

So that's the briefest possibly synopsis of the cruise that I could possibly offer. I could (and still might) do an entire post on our adventures in gluttony. I love cruise food! And tomorrow I'll be picking up my photos (and photo CD) from the waterproof camera and will have to add another post all about our ports of call!

Rather than do yet another "same old" scrapbook, I took an idea I saw on a web board and did a photo scavenger hunt while on board: find something to represent every letter of the alphabet. So I'll be putting the scrapbook for this vacation together alphabetically. We (ok... I) had a lot of fun finding the letters. That's how we ended up with some of my favorite photos, like the one of me in the "A" - Atrium in the previous post. It was also a great boredom buster for those days at sea and a fun creativity exercise. Hopefully the 101 digital photos I sent over to Wal Mart this afternoon will find their way into a book by the time I go back to work. Otherwise I may never finish it!

I leave you with Sunset on Day One, as captured by Scott from our veranda.

Adventures in Island Hopping

We're back! And we are TIRED! Oh yeah, and we are stumbling around the apartment because it won't stop rocking back and forth.

I'll be back with more details later (or tomorrow). For now, here's a few pictures...

Me in the atrium of the Disney Magic

Scott lounging with a book on Castaway Cay

An example of what happens when your digital camera can store 1,000+ photos

Formal night

St. John - I don't know if I have ever seen a more breathtaking place in person.

Who doesn't love a character breakfast??

St. Maarten was a little like Nassau with mountains... but it did have this cool sign at the port!

Well, I spent the better part of this afternoon sorting through 250ish digital images - cropping, resizing, and saving the best 150. I still need to take our waterproof camera over to Wal Mart to have it developed, but that will wait a day.

BIG things

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of something that's larger than life. From statues to stuffed animals, snap a shot of something super-sized.

I wish that I had my camera with me on our little voyage to Sarasota on Tuesday. Not only did we pass Dinosaur World on I-4, we also passed a giant ice cream cone, a big blue gorilla, and some other ridiculous creations. Alas, I shall have to go all the way back to my December 2006 archives for photos (surprise!) from the cruise - Scott feeding a giant jack rabbit and me applying giant lipstick.

Enjoy!

Pardon Me...

...while I slip into a diabetic coma. In the store today, I made an impulse buy: a bag of Tollhouse chocolate-caramel chips. And I decided that I would make cookies. You know, actual cookies made with butter and sugar and eggs... not the ones that come pre-mixed that you just put on a baking sheet. These ones were made with love.

Unfortunately, I loved them a little too much. And now we have a counter full of cookies and I have a tummy ache. But oh WOW are they some tasty cookies!

Since I'm nearly comatose, I thought I would cop out and share some more cruise pictures - these are some of the long-awaited snorkel pics. Enjoy!

What you can barely see in this picture are the thousands of fish we blindly swam into. I had a little panic attack, realizing that we were vastly outnumbered, and if they all of a sudden decided to become people-vores that we'd be effed. Once the panic wore off, it was pretty incredible. Aside from two or three other people, we were the only ones out that far in the lagoon. I bet most people don't get the opportunity to get that close to a whole school.

Scott went down to shake hands with the Mickey statue. I, however, have a strict policy of keeping my snorkel above water.

Note to self: saying "cheese" for an underwater photo will only get water in my mouth. Even still, I really like this picture. You can even see a hint of panic in my eyes. Honestly, it does scare me, breathing through a straw. But I love it.

These certainly weren't the prettiest fish we saw, but they were definitely the closest. Please tell me I'm not the only one utterly fascinated by this.

Anyway, here's one more picture. This is the hammock we actually managed to claim on the adult beach. And this is me in said hammock, pretending to enjoy my tropical drink and not shiver. It was rainy and cold and windy, and those pants weren't nearly thick enough to keep me warm. But at least the weather looks a little better in the picture!

The Much-Anticipated Slide Show

Here it is!

And now, I need to get ready to face the real world.