MarkRG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2002
Hi all from somewhere off the coast of Miami! I'm in the middle of the day at sea, and time for a final live update from the ship 
Almost time to leave 
For those who didn't read my first 2 volumes a small recap:
The players: Wdwvlr and I, with occassional appearances by other disers.
We're in a Navigator Veranda(7124) on Deck 7.
As with the others, feel free to shoot me questions!! I will check back tonight and tomorrow when we will be at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge to round out the week
Now for Castaway Cay, We continued to have calm seas, docking went flawlessly. One thing that was very different, due to the fact the ship opened to the island at an earlier hour(before 8:30) than the Magic(we think 9:30), there was no huge line to get off and no crowds immediately on the beaches. Might have to do with the fact they made no shipwide announcement to go ashore either, or blew the horns. This time we wanted to be on the family beach instead of the adult beach and immediately walked down to the other end and secured 2 loungers under one of the umbrellas.
They really need cabanas here. The umbrellas are fixed and can't be angled or moved. So you're going to be in the sun if you get out to the beach early. prepare for that. We did to a point with spf 30 sunscreen, applied liberally. But no amount of sunglasses will stop your eyes from aching after a while. and the sun is still hot Now, even though it's not on the maps, water floats are available at the bike rental at that end of the beach. No need to grab them right away and lug them all the way down to that end, as we did, oops. We immediately went out and did some goofing off in the tubes we brought, then relaxed for a good while in the quiet at that end of the beach. It stayed quiet till about 12 or so.
After reading so much about the Konk Cooler, had to try one. My recommendation it is one of the don't miss drinks to try. Either with or without alcohol, as I had mine. The closest I could describe it as is a Pineapple smoothie. But that's not even accurate, and in the souvenir sippie mug it lasted the entire time we spent on the beach about 12:30 we decided to move on, gave our two tubes to someone who didn't have any, and headed to cookies for some lunch. It is great food, being run by the Deck 9 Buffet group. They had bbq ribs, a very tender grilled salmon, and typical bbq fare of burgers, hotdogs, and salads and such, served buffet style. All in all the island was its usual wondeful place, and a very fun relaxing time.
Now to cap off the day, Wdwlvr went parasailing. They take people out in groups on a boat with a chute behind it that can easily take up 2 at a time. So you can either go by yourself or couples can go together. She had an exciting time and recommends it to anyone who wants to be adventurous.
After that we went to the Castaway Club meet in the Cadillac Lounge. They really put out the spread here. The last one was drinks and small snak foods. Not here! They had a very elegant buffet of orderves(sp?) and other finger food and a variety of free drinks. We met up with Taswira and chatted for a bit. Then we moved on to dinner at Parrot Cay. They had something they didn't have before on the menu; a delicious Prime Rib that both of us had and really enjoyed. They also had a carbbean band doing music and taking requests, winding up with the 'hot,hot,hot' conga line. We were going to go to Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer, but got there too late and the only reason we were going was, to go early to try to get her on the panel. So we blew it off and called it a day. Today is a Day at Sea, with activities all around the ship, lot of them interesting. The weather on the other hand has been lousy with heavy overcast and periods of heavy, cold rain. Wound up spending a lot of time just on the veranda reading or just watching other ships, mostly tankers go by.
Well, tha't about it for now, I'll post a wrapup tomorrow night from the Villas at WL, and check back here later on in the evening if anyone has questions
Almost time to leave For those who didn't read my first 2 volumes a small recap:
The players: Wdwvlr and I, with occassional appearances by other disers.
We're in a Navigator Veranda(7124) on Deck 7.
As with the others, feel free to shoot me questions!! I will check back tonight and tomorrow when we will be at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge to round out the week
Now for Castaway Cay, We continued to have calm seas, docking went flawlessly. One thing that was very different, due to the fact the ship opened to the island at an earlier hour(before 8:30) than the Magic(we think 9:30), there was no huge line to get off and no crowds immediately on the beaches. Might have to do with the fact they made no shipwide announcement to go ashore either, or blew the horns. This time we wanted to be on the family beach instead of the adult beach and immediately walked down to the other end and secured 2 loungers under one of the umbrellas.
They really need cabanas here. The umbrellas are fixed and can't be angled or moved. So you're going to be in the sun if you get out to the beach early. prepare for that. We did to a point with spf 30 sunscreen, applied liberally. But no amount of sunglasses will stop your eyes from aching after a while. and the sun is still hot
Now, even though it's not on the maps, water floats are available at the bike rental at that end of the beach. No need to grab them right away and lug them all the way down to that end, as we did, oops. We immediately went out and did some goofing off in the tubes we brought, then relaxed for a good while in the quiet at that end of the beach. It stayed quiet till about 12 or so.After reading so much about the Konk Cooler, had to try one. My recommendation it is one of the don't miss drinks to try. Either with or without alcohol, as I had mine. The closest I could describe it as is a Pineapple smoothie. But that's not even accurate, and in the souvenir sippie mug it lasted the entire time we spent on the beach
about 12:30 we decided to move on, gave our two tubes to someone who didn't have any, and headed to cookies for some lunch. It is great food, being run by the Deck 9 Buffet group. They had bbq ribs, a very tender grilled salmon, and typical bbq fare of burgers, hotdogs, and salads and such, served buffet style. All in all the island was its usual wondeful place, and a very fun relaxing time.Now to cap off the day, Wdwlvr went parasailing. They take people out in groups on a boat with a chute behind it that can easily take up 2 at a time. So you can either go by yourself or couples can go together. She had an exciting time and recommends it to anyone who wants to be adventurous.
After that we went to the Castaway Club meet in the Cadillac Lounge. They really put out the spread here. The last one was drinks and small snak foods. Not here! They had a very elegant buffet of orderves(sp?) and other finger food and a variety of free drinks. We met up with Taswira and chatted for a bit. Then we moved on to dinner at Parrot Cay. They had something they didn't have before on the menu; a delicious Prime Rib that both of us had and really enjoyed. They also had a carbbean band doing music and taking requests, winding up with the 'hot,hot,hot' conga line. We were going to go to Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer, but got there too late and the only reason we were going was, to go early to try to get her on the panel. So we blew it off and called it a day. Today is a Day at Sea, with activities all around the ship, lot of them interesting. The weather on the other hand has been lousy with heavy overcast and periods of heavy, cold rain. Wound up spending a lot of time just on the veranda reading or just watching other ships, mostly tankers go by.
Well, tha't about it for now, I'll post a wrapup tomorrow night from the Villas at WL, and check back here later on in the evening if anyone has questions
