Churros Countdown - WDW and Disney Cruise 2008

[churros]

Gee sitting on the balcony watching the Caribbean sail past sounds like pure torture

Beth, can you remember what category cabin you had?

Cat 6 Family suite with verandah midship 6558.

I'll try to put up some more photos soon but am having my own internet problems.

[churros]

OK we are back on the ship after some time with the forum in dry dock!

Day 3 of the cruise: Nassau, Bahamas

Mickey rang to wake us up at 7.30 and breakfast was delivered about 8.00am - I wonder what the poor people are doing? I sat on the balcony as we slid into Nassau harbour and docked in between 2 other cruise ships. The one outside our window had an entire floor dedicated to a casino, the closest thing to a casino on the Wonder is bingo!

Glenda went and had a massage then we all met our tour group at 10.15 in the Promenade Lounge. We were all given a purple pumba sticker and then followed our guide down to the deck 1 to disembark. The tour we had pre-booked was a 1 hour harbour cruise. I had tried to get a short Nassau city tour but Disney wasn't offering it anymore and the only city tour went for over 4 hours and I thought that was too long. All the tours are contracted through Disney but you can arrange your own in Nassau. I believe a lot of people book a room at Atlantis - the casino, just so they can use the facilities including the beach.

The harbour cruise was pleasant enough mostly pointing out celebrity homes - Oprah, Chuck Norris, Mick Jagger, where a James Bond movie was shot, but I was glad it was only an hour.

We then wandered the main shopping area including the straw markets. Not that I was terribly interested in straw products but I don't think we can bring them in toAustralia anyway. The markets are very compact and warm and most of the stalls sell the same products - straw bags, t-shirts, souvenirs, shell necklaces. The main street had clothing shops, del sol (everything changes colour in the sun), souvenir shops, jewellery and as you got further sown the street you come across all the designer shops - gucci etc. The boys loved the hard rock cafe which we just bought some t-shirts in and the boys took lots of photos. I bought a rum cake for my dad, some del sol stuff and that was about it. The boys enjoyed the parliament house which looked like it had seen a few hurricanes. I also found it interesting that as a British colony they drive on the left but drive both left and right drives.

We headed back to the ship about 2pm and had lunch at the Beach Blanket Buffet. Glenda made us hop off again to take a photo in front of the Nassau sign for the "Shebang" Then back on the ship everyone scattered to their own pleasures! I think I watched Disney movies in the cabin. The ship left as the night lights were coming on in the city and we bid farewell to Nassau.

Dinner that night was at Tritons but this was the pirates in the caribbean party night. All the crew and characters were dressed as pirates. I bought a pirate mickey and minnie and Angus bought a pirate goofy hat and dagger. There was a pirate scarf for everyone at the table and the menus were printed on pirate maps. Later that evening they had a character pirate show, fireworks and a dessert buffet on deck 9. All very spectacular - I love Disney! I just don't understand why there are humungous turkey legs on a dessert table - what is it with these people and turkey?

[churros]

Day 4 of the cruise: Castaway Cay

I sat on the balcony and watched as we pulled into Castaway Cay about 7.30am - very excited! Breakfast was delivered again and then we got off the ship about 9.30am. Glenda headed off to the adults only beach and we didn't see her again until we were back on the ship. The boys and I heade off to the STingray encounter. They give you a short talk about stingrays - how they regularly clip their barbs, then we headed into the water. They are trained to swim up a little horseshoe-shaped ramp and you place your hand on top of a Mickey-shaped black disc and then swim onto the disc and suck the food up from your fingers. I have to admit to not being very brave, having stingrays just swimming around my legs was a bit more than I could stand - how do you spell woos?

Then we headed off to claim our beach chairs, the boys went and got some inflatable donuts and we frolicked in the waters of the Bahamas - sounds exotic! I forced myself to lie on a banana chair for a while and order some fruity mango drink when the cast member walked by - if my friends could see me now!

I had booked a catamaran trip which takes you out to the reef to snorkel so I headed off while the boys went to get lunch at Cookies Barbeque. Unfortunately due to rough seas my trip was cancelled so I joined the boys for lunch. After a little shopping on the island Angus went off to bike ride (unfortunately he needed an adult so he went back to the ship too), Jacob went back on the ship and I went snorkelling off the beach.

Disney have layed sunken treasure all over the bay and the fish were plentiful. I knew Mickey was down there some where and asked one of the lifeguards stationed out in the middle of the bay. In his Aussie accent he said Mickey was being repaired but Minnie was over by the white boo-ee, I replied you mean the buoy and he sheepishly replied yes. Do they say this boat is very boo-ant or I am wearing a boo-ancy vest? I didn't find Minnie and I was near exhausted so went back to shore and onto the ship.

As my family were no where to be found I did some laundry. The others turned up having watched Wall-E at the theatre.

That night I saw the stage show "Disney Dreams" - just brilliant, I cried and cried - they do this so well - it snowed on the audience and Tinkerbell dusted the entire ship - that's all I'm saying! Honestly the cost of the cruise is worth this alone!

That night was dinner at Animator's Palate which I really wanted to see but I just could not stand the thought of seeing or smelling food and they went without me. The boys gave the American family that we had sat with each meal a bag of goodies and the mother ripped straight into the Cadbury Furry Friends, while the father promised to try vegemite for breakfast the next day.

Later that evening I walked around Deck 10 and didn't see another person! I suspect everyone was packing their luggage as we had to have it outside our cabin door before 11pm.

I also noticed that night that the lamps beside the bed were maps of the worlds which showed every park - where can you buy those?

[Mel]

Oooh I want one of those lamps too!!!

The cruise sounds absolutely fabulous - you really have sold me on it. Is the breakfast delivery standard or is there an extra cost? I wanna go NOW!!!!

[KeithS]

I wanna go NOW!!!!

Never a truer word has been said Mel. It looks like it'll be 2011 for me. Anaheim next year, Tokyo in 2010, Cruise in 2011...that's my long term plan.

[Mel]

I wanna go NOW!!!!

Never a truer word has been said Mel. It looks like it'll be 2011 for me. Anaheim next year, Tokyo in 2010, Cruise in 2011...that's my long term plan.

Oh poor you!

I only have a tentative 2010 (Tokyo) and a definite 2014 US parks. I much prefer your plan

[KeithS]

Oh poor you!

Of course at the moment, it is just a plan Have to wait and see what happens with $$ - time to save save save!

[churros]

Is the breakfast delivery standard or is there an extra cost?

Room service is free for most items. I think you have to pay for alcohol and soft drinks. But the soft drinks are free 24hr on deck 9. Of course you have to tip the server!

[churros]

I'm back - sorry have had connection problems. My landline has been inaudible and telstra fixed it this morning and we are go for launch! I'm not telling the kids because I have a bit of catching up to do. Anyway Angus bought himself Guitar Hero World Tour yesterday - the one with a guitar, drum kit and microphone - yippee

Thursday 2 October: Disembarkation (is that a word?)

I woke around 6am and we were already docked at Port Canaveral - boo! Our luggage had gone out the night before so we got ready, packed the last few things and headed off to Animator's Palate for breakfast. The dad from the American family on our table was disappointed as he had packed his vegemite in his suitcase.

We disembarked aorund 9am and in a blink of an eye it was all over! Angus stated it had been paradise and promised to take me again - I'll hold him to that.

So in summary even though my health restricted me somewhat it was fantastic and I must go again. I think next time West coast and no less than 7 days. I would love to do the repositioning cruise which is 14 days and goes through the Panama Canal. My advice - do not do the 3 or 4 day cruise!!! And if you can stretch the budget get a balcony or at least a window. If money is no object then just get one of the Disney suites What would I do different next time? Well the fish extenders were fun but I think I would only do it again with a group I knew e.g. DUD. It really can go either way - I don't think this lot were overall a very imaginative lot (hope they're not reading this) and some were just focused on their own little people. If I was to go to Nassau again I probably would not get off the ship. The more days at sea or on the ship the better.

Next we caught a taxi to the Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach. Very clean and comfortable but clearly a remnant from the hey-day of the space program (I am very happy to indulge in the nostalgia. They had signs pointing to space memorabilia but we couldn't find it and had to ask a few staff before someone was finally able to tell us that it had been gone for years.) We walked around the resort and down to the beach - grey sand, then got a town car to Merritt Square Mall. This was a little disappointing as I had planned this as our big shopping mall day and had research the local shops and while this had some of the big names it was no Miranda Fair (Westfield for you non-locals) The mall was practically empty but we bumped into a few cruise staff who were making the most of their few hours off. We then caught the local bus to Walmart which was one of my goals. The boys ate at the Maccas in the supermarket and Glenda and I got some rolls to take back to the resort.

At the resort we swam in the pool and I spent the afternoon lying on a banana chair listening to the music that was being pumped out - my kind of stuff! Later Angus and I wandered down to the beach and sat and watched the Disney Wonder head back out to sea - nooooooo! Come back, come back! That night we just had pizza delivered to the room.

[churros]

Friday 3 October: NASA

We had arranged a town car to take us to Kennedy Space Center (sic) which surprisingly was a 40min drive. I though it was closer but I guess all the waterways and bridges are quite deceptive. I suppose it is not so far as the crow flies. We arrived around 10.30 and headed off to the Space Shuttle Launch Simulator. It was like Star Tours but with more tilt. I felt the image on the screen was not so realistic as there were multiple images and this distracted a bit from the experience. The astronauts have said that this is very realistic but I would like to hear their comparison with Mission Space where you could really feel the Gs.

We explored the Rocket Garden and then headed off to a lunch with an astronaut - Jerry Carr from SkyLab. Very interesting but Glenda thought the food wasn't great - no use asking me. We then headed off to the bus tour of the facilities - I loved this bit - it takes you to a viewing gantry for the space shuttles and historically there were 2 on the launch pads at the same time. I was already aware at this stage that the launch had been cancelled so there was a tinge of regret as I looked at the shuttle. The bus then takes you to the Saturn IV centre - I cried, this thing is huge and the music is very stirring! Then the last stop was the International Space Station centre where you get to actually look down into the area where they are putting everything together that goes up in the shuttle to the ISS.

We were disappointed to not see any gators as we drove around because everyone said we would.

The kids ate space dots (dippin' dots) out of an astronauts head - I made them share becasue it was twice the price of dippin' dots elsewhere. The car picked us up at 5pm and we had Denny's for dinner (across the road from Holiday Inn)

[churros]

Saturday 4 October: NASA/Airboat ride

Today we went our separate ways - I back to KSC and Glenda and the boys off to Loan Cabbage.

I arrived at KSC just after 9am and was feeling better - hooray! I had a capuccino and a churros for breakfast at KSC then explored the future exhibit. I had booked the "Up close tour" I had really wanted to do the historic tour but they said it wasn't available at the time I booked but it was clearly operating this day. However it is impossible to do both tours in the one day. My tour took us out to causeway where I had a bought a ticket to watch the launch The guide said to us don't go near the edge of the water due to gators and fire ants - now that would have been interesting for the several hours in the dark that I would have been standing there waiting for the launch! They took us to the Vehicle Assembly building and let us out of the bus to take photos (I'm really geeking out now) We went to the space shuttle viewing gantry. Showed us the landing runway - finally saw a gator! Then they left us at the Saturn IV centre to catch the regular tour bus back when we were ready. So not a lot different from the standard bus tour.

I had lunch at the Saturn IV - pizza in a box with the American flag on the top and the space shuttle cut out of the top! They have a few shows here which I spent time looking at - loved the moon landing show! Then I shopped and then headed back to the visitors centre where I continued shopping before heading back to our hotel.

Glenda and the boys headed off to Loan Cabbage for an airboat ride. Jacob's version goes along these lines: they saw the head of a "skunk- ape" some mythical swamp creature. There were 10 people on the boat plus the driver who sat up behind them. The boat was very fast, loud, with lots of bugs and the trip went for an hour. They saw 3 alligators, bald-headed eagles and some kind of white toad. Jacob bought some gator teeth necklaces from a bloke who was making crafts out of gators bits and pieces on the jetty. The shop was very dirty and the cafe was outside and full of smokers. Then they head back to the hotel and had lunch at Denny's. They walked up the street to a local Publix supermarket and various shops.

When I got back I did some laundry and the boys told me about the Hallmark shop up the street and I had less than an hour before it closed so... a significant amount of money later... then we had dinner at the Captian's Grill in the hotel. This was the first full meal I ate in 2 weeks.

[churros]

Sunday 5 October: Happy Birthday to me!

Jacob gave me some gifts he had bought at KSC, Glenda had previously bought me a WDW watch and Angus said I had to wait for his present. Before we checked out I went for a walk around the local streets and took a photo of "I Dream of Jeannie Lane"

We were picked up about 10am and arrived at the Polynesian Resort around 11am - back in the bubble! Our room was in Tahiti room 3035 , 3rd floor with a balcony - wow what a view - the ferries were just to the right (I could hear their damn horns very late and very early each day) along with the TTC, we looked straight across at the castle and the Grand Floridian was off to the left. At various points the monorail could be seen making its way around the bay. The wilderness lodge also poked its head above the trees.

We had an ADR at Kona which was decked out in Lilo and Stitch halloween - Asian/American influenced meals (enjoyable but not the same as Asian/Australian meals) and I had been told that this was the best coffee on property - I need to check my sources!

We wandered around the resort shops then the Boys and I headed off to the MK while Glenda went to visit a medical centre for an ear ache she had been unable to shake.

We walked to the TCC to catch the monorail over to MK even though the Poly has its own station as the TTC was so close to our room. When we arrived I went to city hall and got my birthday badge and we had a wonderful afternoon in predominately Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Angus bought me a beautiful Mickey snowglobe with icons from each park.

We had an ADR at Chef Mickeys that night - I love staying in a monorail resort! It was fun but poor Angus got Mickey offside. When he came up to have his photo Angus patted him on the back which Mickey didn't appreciate and would not stay for the photo. Not knowing what had happened I asked Mickey to come back for a photo and he indicated no because Angus had smacked his bottom. Naturally this was quite devastating for Angus but Goofy made up for it. They bought me out a cup cake with a candle but Goofy blew it out by waving his hand before I had the chance

Regarding the Poly, we had 2 double beds and a sofa bed so Angus and I shared. There were a few things broken in the room, mousekeeping was quite poor and we didn't receive one towel animal the whole week. We loved the view and the location but the room was far from deluxe! More on this later.

[churros]

I've added more photos if you have the stamina!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/disneydown ... 156619605/

[KeithS]

I've added more photos if you have the stamina!

I LOVE those Kennedy photos - I've really got to get over to KSC on my next trip

[churros]

Monday 6th October: Epcot

What is it with this park and rain? It probably rained every day in Florida but the 2 Epcot days were torrential. It starts out fine enough but by the end of the day ...

Anyway we hit the big rides first off and thankfully a fellow gave us his 4 fast passes for test track which were almost due (this happened a couple of times to us). Then we moved on to world showcase and it was now the food and wine festival. We tried a few little items here and there had lunch at the cantina. The Melbourne stand was quite large and did replicate the back alleys. Glenda bought a lamb cutlet for $5 but it was worth it.

I think we got through most things at Epcot and manage to hit some of our favourite rides a few times. The boys even came on the more intense version of Mission Space with me but Glenda was content to not try it. The boys went off and did their own thing at times. Then we positioned ourselves in the rain for Illuminations then returned to the Poly for Dole Whip (self-serve).