nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
Back to the Island-Double Dip Delight!Western COMPLETE~Cruising with a baby w/PICS!
- Thread starter nenner1
- Start date
nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
Nah...you got one up!!
Yep, it was awesome! There's always next time...maybe since you guys changed up and are going to WDW this year you can cruise (coughwith us?cough) NEXT YEAR???
TotallyAngelic
Disney Addict
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2005
WOW - love your latest installment - your photos almost make up for me missing Grand Cayman when we couldn't go there last October - actually, no, scratch that, they make me want to go there all the more. Good excuse to plan another Western someday. I was so gutted to miss Stingray City.
flower91882
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2004
I'm finally getting around to reading everyone's reports. Good job! Keep it up!
podsnel
<font color=blue>just skippin' around, amusing mys
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2007
What a great day you had on GC!!! Thanks for so many details about the sea life you saw- we snorkeled at the barrier reef too, but it was so rough that day we couldn't get very close and ended up back on the boat very quickly. But the stingrays and sea stars were very, very cool still. I'll hope for your weather & seas next time!!
nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
Thanks!
Oh my gosh yes it was great. You'll have to do it. We are doing another Western next year and we are going back to do it again!!!Yes, it was really beautiful. I wanted to post the movie but could never figure out how to edit out the strangers. It really didn't do it justice though...the colors were so vivid. And the critters were so neat!
Why thank you! Glad to see you onboard!!!
Oh, that's too bad you had rough seas!What a great day you had on GC!!! Thanks for so many details about the sea life you saw- we snorkeled at the barrier reef too, but it was so rough that day we couldn't get very close and ended up back on the boat very quickly. But the stingrays and sea stars were very, very cool still. I'll hope for your weather & seas next time!!
It was a wonderful excursion. I can't wait to go again.And PS I have started your TR and haven't gotten too far yet, LOL...but I am working on it, I promise.
It is great so far!! Hope your having a blast in WDW! Cant wait for you to get back and post more
Yes, we did have a blast!! It was over way too quick...
BUT we are back and that means back to business. The next installment is a lot of fun too and I hope to have it up sometime this weekend...
livingis2me
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2008
How about a new chapter?
nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
...in Margaritaville!
Our three hour tour on the High Rider was winding down, and not a minute too soon. Because we got started late, we didn’t get dropped off back by the tender pier until well after 1:30. We were supposed to have arrived back by 1 PM, and luckily we had reserved Flounder’s Reef for Sarah until they closed at 2 PM. While Ron sprinted to catch a tender back to the Magic, the kids and I headed a few blocks up the road to a parrothead’s paradise-the one, but not the only-Margaritaville!
We’re on our way!
Margaritaville Cayman Islands is a whole lot a fun. Part restaurant, part bar, part shop, and part water park. Plan to knock back a few hours at this joint. Arriving at the building, you enter through a semi-open air shopping complex that opens into an atrium in front of Margaritaville.
Front entrance from the street:
Atrium entrance to Margaritaville proper:
The Pirate Parrot:
We entered into the first level, which is the Margaritaville Trading Post store. It has all the usual Margaritaville souvenirs: T-shirts, shot glasses, Buffett CD’s, etc. We went upstairs to the restaurant/pool deck level via the interior shop stairs (which is a pretty narrow stairway). There is also an elevator:
The kids barely waited long enough to pose for this picture, and they were in the pool. The top level was not busy at all. The restaurant and bar off to the left had but a handful of patrons, and with the exception of a couple of children in the pool, the deck area was deserted also.
I grabbed a seat in the nice shaded cabana areas off to the side of the pool. The little alcoves are off to the right of this picture.
The pool is great, a decent size for being in the middle of a restaurant/shop with a neat slide and stand alone Jacuzzi. It also had a swim up bar that was not currently open.
The kids were having a blast and before too long, I was joined by a fellow cruiser Val and her family. They sat down next to me in the cabana and we chatted while our kids splashed and slid.
It took about an hour, maybe a little more for Ron to arrive with Sarah. He had gotten to Flounder’s at about 1:55 and they were already shut down, waiting with Sarah all packed up and strapped in her seat in the foyer of Flounders. We were relieved to have gotten there before 2:00!
Sarah didn’t go in the pool, but she enjoyed relaxing in the cabana:
This slide…is not just for kids!
All we had while we were there was an iced tea (regular, not Long Island) and a Margarita. I was expecting a server would happen by to take drink orders, but one never did). Together, they cost over $20. Actually it was really nice to just go in and have fun at the pool and not be harassed or worry about taking up the cabana being a “non-customer” (we would actually drop a couple hundred bucks in the store so technically we were customers!)
Ron watched Sarah while I took a short dip in the pool to cool off. I had forgotten to put on sunscreen earlier, and despite it being a rather overcast day, I had gotten a bit of sunburn. The water was cool relief for my parched skin.
We couldn’t hang out too long, since we had to tender back by 4 PM. We got our goodies in the store and headed back to the tender pier. We could see as we approached the security checkpoint that the tender was already pretty full, and we really wanted to catch it, as it was probably the next to the last one. We rushed through security and double-timed it to the double-decker tender, relieved that we had just made it….or so we thought. There was still actually a little room on the benches and we sat down. A few more folks came onboard…and more, and more. We waited…and waited….and waited. They crammed more, and more, and more people onboard to the point it was absolutely ridiculous. There was another tender waiting to pull in as soon as we departed, but it appeared we were going nowhere soon. We sat there for at least 20 minutes while yet MORE cruisers struggled onboard. Everybody was getting frustrated, including Sarah:
Even the tender guys were visibly annoyed and eventually they had to yell to the people staffing the security checkpoint to cut it off. The security people were very surprised when they turned around; I guess they didn’t realize how full the boat was, or how long we had been waiting. Immediately they corralled the folks they had just let through and applause broke out onboard as we were finally on our way back to the Magic.
Once back onboard, we took a short while to get showered and dressed, and ordered some room service snacks of chicken fingers, cookies and Mickey Bars to take to the show.
Since tonight was Pirate Night, there was no real show, except for a special showing of Wall-E in the Walt Disney Theatre. Loaded up with our room service goodies and drinks, we headed to the theatre in time to snag comfy seats near the aisle.
There weren’t too many folks at the movie, which was great, as we could spread out and relax. Sarah took a nap, and about the time Wall-E and Eve make it into space, apparently I did the same. What I saw of the movie I did enjoy and the kids like it a lot. We had purposely not seen it in theaters since we knew it would probably be showing on the cruise.
After the movie, we decided the time had come to take care of our “Secret Mickey” gift. Like a Secret Santa, we had been given the name of another family (Arin -anc22- and gang) and were to surprise them with a nice gift. All along I had known what I wanted to give as my gift, and I was very happy when we got our “assignments”. We loved the little resin model ship we bought onboard the Wonder and I thought it would be a great Secret Mickey gift, but we worried we would be given a repeat-cruiser who might already have the model ship. However, this was their first cruise and we were very happy to find out we would have them for Secret Mickeys! (Thanks Drea, you did a good job, girl!)
After the movie we stopped by Treasure Ketch to pick it up, and a cool picture frame too (yes I know we went over the $20 limit, but I think a lot of participants did!) I had brought a “Mickey” (black, yellow, & red) bag, ribbons, bows and tissue paper along with us to present the gift in. I wrapped it up and we headed out to do the drop.
(If you look closely you can see our wall was in dire need of repainting…right after dry dock...)
We had waited this long for a couple of reasons. One, we are horrible procrastinators. Really. We kept meaning to stop by and grab the gift but kept forgetting. Although, to be honest I had planned on waiting ‘til Pirate Night to do the drop (which tonight was) to be sure they were not hanging out in their stateroom. We headed aft and in the area around their stateroom paused in the hall. The plan was to have their stateroom host leave the gift in their room. I’d stressed about this to a degree, worried we’d not be able to find their host/hostess or that somehow it would make it into the wrong room. Or that we’d be discovered hanging out conspicuously.
In any event, it went seamlessly. Their host was coming out of the room directly across from theirs as we approached and I asked him if he was their stateroom host. He said yes, that he was and I handed over the bag and said, “Can you deliver this into their room for us, please?” He replied “The –(Last Name)-family‘s room"? And I froze for a second…I didn’t remember their last name! I hesitated, but he was opening their door so I just said “Yep!” and smiled. He took the bag and headed inside and we bolted, lest we be discovered. Of course, we had revealed the gift was from us on the card, but we still didn’t want to be caught in the act.
It was time for a celebration fit for a pirate!
Up Next: We’ve made enough money to buy Miami, but……
Our three hour tour on the High Rider was winding down, and not a minute too soon. Because we got started late, we didn’t get dropped off back by the tender pier until well after 1:30. We were supposed to have arrived back by 1 PM, and luckily we had reserved Flounder’s Reef for Sarah until they closed at 2 PM. While Ron sprinted to catch a tender back to the Magic, the kids and I headed a few blocks up the road to a parrothead’s paradise-the one, but not the only-Margaritaville!
We’re on our way!
Margaritaville Cayman Islands is a whole lot a fun. Part restaurant, part bar, part shop, and part water park. Plan to knock back a few hours at this joint. Arriving at the building, you enter through a semi-open air shopping complex that opens into an atrium in front of Margaritaville.
Front entrance from the street:
Atrium entrance to Margaritaville proper:
The Pirate Parrot:
We entered into the first level, which is the Margaritaville Trading Post store. It has all the usual Margaritaville souvenirs: T-shirts, shot glasses, Buffett CD’s, etc. We went upstairs to the restaurant/pool deck level via the interior shop stairs (which is a pretty narrow stairway). There is also an elevator:
The kids barely waited long enough to pose for this picture, and they were in the pool. The top level was not busy at all. The restaurant and bar off to the left had but a handful of patrons, and with the exception of a couple of children in the pool, the deck area was deserted also.
I grabbed a seat in the nice shaded cabana areas off to the side of the pool. The little alcoves are off to the right of this picture.
The pool is great, a decent size for being in the middle of a restaurant/shop with a neat slide and stand alone Jacuzzi. It also had a swim up bar that was not currently open.
The kids were having a blast and before too long, I was joined by a fellow cruiser Val and her family. They sat down next to me in the cabana and we chatted while our kids splashed and slid.
It took about an hour, maybe a little more for Ron to arrive with Sarah. He had gotten to Flounder’s at about 1:55 and they were already shut down, waiting with Sarah all packed up and strapped in her seat in the foyer of Flounders. We were relieved to have gotten there before 2:00!
Sarah didn’t go in the pool, but she enjoyed relaxing in the cabana:
This slide…is not just for kids!
All we had while we were there was an iced tea (regular, not Long Island) and a Margarita. I was expecting a server would happen by to take drink orders, but one never did). Together, they cost over $20. Actually it was really nice to just go in and have fun at the pool and not be harassed or worry about taking up the cabana being a “non-customer” (we would actually drop a couple hundred bucks in the store so technically we were customers!)
Ron watched Sarah while I took a short dip in the pool to cool off. I had forgotten to put on sunscreen earlier, and despite it being a rather overcast day, I had gotten a bit of sunburn. The water was cool relief for my parched skin.
We couldn’t hang out too long, since we had to tender back by 4 PM. We got our goodies in the store and headed back to the tender pier. We could see as we approached the security checkpoint that the tender was already pretty full, and we really wanted to catch it, as it was probably the next to the last one. We rushed through security and double-timed it to the double-decker tender, relieved that we had just made it….or so we thought. There was still actually a little room on the benches and we sat down. A few more folks came onboard…and more, and more. We waited…and waited….and waited. They crammed more, and more, and more people onboard to the point it was absolutely ridiculous. There was another tender waiting to pull in as soon as we departed, but it appeared we were going nowhere soon. We sat there for at least 20 minutes while yet MORE cruisers struggled onboard. Everybody was getting frustrated, including Sarah:
Even the tender guys were visibly annoyed and eventually they had to yell to the people staffing the security checkpoint to cut it off. The security people were very surprised when they turned around; I guess they didn’t realize how full the boat was, or how long we had been waiting. Immediately they corralled the folks they had just let through and applause broke out onboard as we were finally on our way back to the Magic.
Once back onboard, we took a short while to get showered and dressed, and ordered some room service snacks of chicken fingers, cookies and Mickey Bars to take to the show.
Since tonight was Pirate Night, there was no real show, except for a special showing of Wall-E in the Walt Disney Theatre. Loaded up with our room service goodies and drinks, we headed to the theatre in time to snag comfy seats near the aisle.
There weren’t too many folks at the movie, which was great, as we could spread out and relax. Sarah took a nap, and about the time Wall-E and Eve make it into space, apparently I did the same. What I saw of the movie I did enjoy and the kids like it a lot. We had purposely not seen it in theaters since we knew it would probably be showing on the cruise.
After the movie, we decided the time had come to take care of our “Secret Mickey” gift. Like a Secret Santa, we had been given the name of another family (Arin -anc22- and gang) and were to surprise them with a nice gift. All along I had known what I wanted to give as my gift, and I was very happy when we got our “assignments”. We loved the little resin model ship we bought onboard the Wonder and I thought it would be a great Secret Mickey gift, but we worried we would be given a repeat-cruiser who might already have the model ship. However, this was their first cruise and we were very happy to find out we would have them for Secret Mickeys! (Thanks Drea, you did a good job, girl!)
After the movie we stopped by Treasure Ketch to pick it up, and a cool picture frame too (yes I know we went over the $20 limit, but I think a lot of participants did!) I had brought a “Mickey” (black, yellow, & red) bag, ribbons, bows and tissue paper along with us to present the gift in. I wrapped it up and we headed out to do the drop.
(If you look closely you can see our wall was in dire need of repainting…right after dry dock...)
We had waited this long for a couple of reasons. One, we are horrible procrastinators. Really. We kept meaning to stop by and grab the gift but kept forgetting. Although, to be honest I had planned on waiting ‘til Pirate Night to do the drop (which tonight was) to be sure they were not hanging out in their stateroom. We headed aft and in the area around their stateroom paused in the hall. The plan was to have their stateroom host leave the gift in their room. I’d stressed about this to a degree, worried we’d not be able to find their host/hostess or that somehow it would make it into the wrong room. Or that we’d be discovered hanging out conspicuously.
In any event, it went seamlessly. Their host was coming out of the room directly across from theirs as we approached and I asked him if he was their stateroom host. He said yes, that he was and I handed over the bag and said, “Can you deliver this into their room for us, please?” He replied “The –(Last Name)-family‘s room"? And I froze for a second…I didn’t remember their last name! I hesitated, but he was opening their door so I just said “Yep!” and smiled. He took the bag and headed inside and we bolted, lest we be discovered. Of course, we had revealed the gift was from us on the card, but we still didn’t want to be caught in the act.
It was time for a celebration fit for a pirate!
Up Next: We’ve made enough money to buy Miami, but……
anewmac
Ive got nothing planned whats an OCVP to do?
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2007
Seeing the pics of Margaritaville took me back.. I wanna to hange out with a drink by the pool again..
Love hearing how yall surprized everyone and glad P (err I lol I had him pick out of a bag LOL) matched everyone up good!
Love hearing how yall surprized everyone and glad P (err I lol I had him pick out of a bag LOL) matched everyone up good!
livingis2me
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2008
Thanks for finally updating! 
For the record I had a Margarita.
You're iced T and my margarita came out to over $20. 
For the record I had a Margarita.
You're iced T and my margarita came out to over $20. 
heatherlynn444
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2006
really enjoying your report! you have a beautiful family!
TheDisneyGirl02
<font color=navy>I found my Disney Prince!<br><fon
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2006
Yay!!! Another update!!!!
Loved all of the pictures, even the one of Sarah getting fussy!
Loved all of the pictures, even the one of Sarah getting fussy!
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