2-8-07 or How the DIS created a DCL Expert/Addict:Chap 23 Up! TR Done!

[pierresgirl]

Great report Ashman, your writing style is funny and your girls are adorable!

 

[kritter]

Great Report your kids are supper cute!!!!!!!!

 

[mommykeg]

I'd love to hear about what you thought about your room...we have that one booked for the Thanksgiving 2008 cruise, and we've only ever been in a verandah stateroom before. How did you like the location? Is there a trunk with shelves in it in that cabin? Any complaints? Did you feel alot of movement in that forward location? Would love to know whatever you'd like to share...we still have plenty of time to change cabins if we want to, so I'm looking for all the info I can get!

 

[ashman]

The expressions in this photo are cracking me up.

Still a great report! Keep on going, rants and all.

I was VERY impressed with the Cruise staff during the pirate party, they were dancing up a storm. The young lady in this picture (I think her name was Lucy Loo) was a real peach and did a lot of great interactions with the girls. Another fella, Ian, looked like someone had poured a bucket of water on him he was dancing and sweating so hard!

HI there..

SO glad you had a WONDEFUL time...You are one beautiful family...


Enjoying your report.

Great report Ashman, your writing style is funny and your girls are adorable!

Great Report your kids are supper cute!!!!!!!!

Thank you all, I am very grateful the girls get their looks from their mom!

I'd love to hear about what you thought about your room...we have that one booked for the Thanksgiving 2008 cruise, and we've only ever been in a verandah stateroom before. How did you like the location? Is there a trunk with shelves in it in that cabin? Any complaints? Did you feel alot of movement in that forward location? Would love to know whatever you'd like to share...we still have plenty of time to change cabins if we want to, so I'm looking for all the info I can get!

If you have read my warning about being forward before (you come up on deck 9 in the adult only area), that would be my only concern with this room. This was the third cruise for my wife and I together. In the past we had always had the verandah. The room was plenty spacious for the time we were there. If it were a 7 day cruise I might feel different but I think we could have done just fine with it. Yes there was a steamer trunk in the room which was very nice. The room was nice and quiet two decks below the “pool/party” deck and three above the theatre. We couldn’t hear the party from our room. The only time I heard any noise was the last night and that was from the passengers. No movement issues but this was the smoothest cruise I have ever been on weather wise. We had maybe 3-4 ft seas at the roughest on the first night. The Caribbean cruise I was on in the past was much choppier on the first night going through the Straights of Florida. I would not be concerned about this cabin from a movement perspective. I would have no reservations to recommend this cabin to a couple. If you have kids it would be okay, you just have to remember to walk down to the midship lifts and/or stairs. Hope this helps.

 

[ashman]

We got our pics back from our dolphin excursion here are a few.

Sweet Child and her Hug:

Mini Me and Her Hug:

She was a bit cold, but was having a good time!

Our dolphin Shawn swimming by to meet us:

One of the things I thought was really cool is that there is for the most a 1 to 1 staff to dolphin interaction. Each trainer works with one dolphin for the most part. Good excursion.

 

[ashman]

Chapter 20: Castaway Cay, Swimming Beasties, Digging Denizens, and Silly Snorkelers

Ahh Castaway Cay, a lyrical sounding place that warms the heart of many DCL vets and piques the curiosity of those yet to sample its sweet offerings. Now to set the tone for today you must know, my girls are beach girls. They love the beach. My folks have a time share at Atlantic Beach, NC that I have been going to since I was a kid. They even have a pool there affectionately referred to as “The Mickey Pool” :

Taken from Google Earth, Coordinates are 34° 41’ 57.89” N 76° 44’ 48.98” W if you want a closer look.

So when we told the girls that we were going on a cruise and that we were going to have a beach day in February, this became one of the most anticipated parts of the trip!

Again we had an early rise, saw the sunset and got to see the ship back into Castaway Cay. Mini Me had a special time enjoying the view:

We got dressed (like it takes a long time to put on your bathing suit!) and lathered up the family with the super duper wet proof, sweat proof, nuclear strike proof sunscreen SPF 60, thick as all get out and a bit grainy when applied. Feels weird going on but nothing gets through this stuff and one application is usually good for the day.

Here is where I add a tip from a beach pro to my friends on the Dis, I don’t think I have seen this tip before. Apply the sunscreen in your room. It is easier to ensure proper application and it’s easier on the kids. It is sheer torture to apply sunscreen to kids when the beach is so tantalizingly close.

We head up to Beach Blanket Bingo for breakfast (I really like eating here for breakfast) and score a table on the aft deck overlooking Castaway Cay. After breakfast we take a few pics including a nice one of the beach and the Flying Dutchman:

We head down to deck 3 for one last potty break before we head out. I run over to guest services to take care of our tips figuring that it will be a mad house that evening. I hook up with the kids and we are off to Castaway Cay. We aren’t the first ones off the ship but I bet we are in the first 100. We stop to take another picture of the Flying Dutchman:

Notice the “enough with the pictures lets get to the beach” look on the girls face. Now I have a confession to make. This may sound like apostasy and may even get me banned from the Dis and any future DCL cruise, I don’t care for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. The first one was okay, the second was just too intense for me for a “Disney” movie plus I didn’t like the way it never really resolved anything and cut off haphazardly in an obvious set up for the third movie. I know it was meant to be a trilogy but I always felt that even a trilogy movie should be able to stand on its on. That said, seeing the Flying Dutchman up close was very cool!

Okay movie rant over, deep cleansing breath, I feel better.

Anyhoo we stop for a pic at another Castaway Cay Icon, Mt Rustmore:

We get on the walkway. DW and the kids see the first cutoff for the family beach and want to pull off. Nope I said, trust dad on this one, we stick to the walkway to the end of the family beach and we stand a much better chance to score a hammock. So off we go:

We get to the end and score the last open hammock on the beach! Yess! As we set up camp we see another family running in the sand in our direction towards our hammock. Their shoulders slump in pain and defeat as we justly claim the spoils of a superior beach rest station acquisition plan. I smile smugly to myself as I turn my gaze of disdain from the hapless fools who either don’t know the Dis or didn’t heed its teachings, a return to my vacation. My wife and I hop into the hammock:

and the kids hit the beach:

The weather is beautiful, the water azure blue and life is good. It is a windy day so there are very small waves at the shore line (like 4 inches tops) but the girls are used to much windier beaches and much rougher surf so they think it is perfect. We hang out and play on the beach for about an hour and then head over to the Stingray excursion set to start at 10.

Now Disney hit the ball out of the park with this excursion. You get a brief orientation/educational lecture. While waiting for the lecture one of the people on the excursion commented on the pirate ring that one of the CM had. He told us he was on the POC crew and got that as an “employee of the week” award, very cool! Each participant is then given a mask/snorkel and Mae West vest. The group is sub divided up into 4 groups of about 8-10 people. The CM drags a Ramp made of PVC pipe that is shaped like a U. The stingrays know the drill because as soon as the ramps go into the water, they start making to the shoreline like we head to BBB when we get on the ship!

A Ray coming up the Ramp:

The rays are trained to come up one ramp and head to a Mickey Shaped plate where they expect to get fed. You squeeze a piece of Shrimp, or Calamari, or Gel sticks that have vitamins between your middle and pointer finger. When it is your turn, you bend down, place your hand on the Mickey Plate.

Eating From the Mickey Plate:

The ray swims up and sucks the food out of your hand. The rays are swimming all around you. Very Cool! The stinging barb on the ray is not at the end of the tail like I thought. Rather it is about 2/3 the way down. The CM’s trim the barbs on the days the ships aren’t at Castaway Cay.

A Ray up close:

Despite this, Mini Me didn’t want to be in the water or to feed the rays so she asked me to hold her.

Mini Me up top:

Again the water was quite brisk and the level was at a place on my body where certain strategic parts were neither completely in nor completely out. Again I was asked by the others what I was doing and I told them it was my shrinkage acceleration program. That got a few laughs and the other guys in our group decided to do the same thing! Well when I dipped down that was the last straw for Mini Me, she wanted to get up on my shoulders. We feed rays for about 20 or 30 minutes. Then you get to swim around the enclosure to get a closer look at the rays. The kids didn’t want to do this so they headed for shore. The CM’s who helped us with the feeding were building a gargantuan sand castle so the kids (ours and others) stayed on the shore building the castle while we swam around for another 20 or 30 minutes. I thought it was so cool that Disney had something there to occupy the kids who might not want to swim and save the parents from either deciding who got to sit out or chucking them down to the kids clubs. We got done and ready to go and the kids had no idea we were done yet! Good job! I highly recommend this excursion and I recommend you do one of the first few time slots as the rays are more active then. They microchip the rays so they know who is getting what as far as food. Again Great Excursion!

Next Up Paradise Continues!

(PS I was at the ship’s terminal this time last week!)

 

[Jennifer48]

This is the first trippie I've read thats had a detailed report about the Stingray Excursion. Thanks for sharing that. Might be something I'm going to look into.

Leave it to Disney to always think of everything. I love it.

P.S. I see your link worked. Nice job!

 

[1sttimecruz]

What an entertaining trip report! Thanks for sharing so much about your trip and your family (they are adorable girls, BTW). I loved the dolphin photos.

 

[ashman]

Chapter 21: Castaway Cay, Late Morning Digging Denizens, and Silly Snorkelers

We get back from the Sting Ray Exhibit and plop down in our chairs and hammock. The girls get back to digging.

Here is Mini Me:

The beach was still pretty deserted at our end of the strip. Shortly after this was taken we were joined by a lovely family from Lafayette Louisiana. The had two kids a little boy who looked to be about 3 and a girl who was the same age as Mini Me. Well the two of them hit it off and before you could say pixie dust they were thick as thieves digging and searching for sea shells! The Dad of the family was a regional Manager for Ci-Ci’s Pizza. They were having a convention on the ship. In fact I think we were one of 8 familes who weren’t part of the convention! For those who don’t know Ci-Ci’s is a pizza buffet chain store. You can feed a family of four for about $20. Good value restaurant type place. Everytime I saw someone from the group I wanted to yell, “Welcome to Ci-Ci’s!” (They do that when you go to the store. The cruise was like one huge Dis meet, everyone seemed to know each other. Each day there was a T-shirt for the folks in the group. The folks we interacted with were great and I was glad they were there!

Mini Me and her Pal were off collecting when a Shutter’s Staff got this shot of Sweet Child:

We are not alcohol drinkers, got nothing against it, we’ll enjoy a Smirnoff’s from time to time we just aren’t into it. We decided to get some Strawberry Daiquiri’s sans booze for us and the girls. We flag down a guy and he tells us about the Conch Cooler Drink of the day. I change my order to that. WOW! I have heard people rave about those and now I know why. Even if you aren’t a drinker, you need to get one of these while on Castaway Cay, it was very good!

I ask Sweet Child if she wants to go snorkeling. She says she does. We have the sets for the kids but I need to get gear for me and a vest for her. I schelpp it down to the snorkel hut and get gear. I hurry back. Now there is no way that we are going to make it out to the snorkel trail, I figure it will be too churned up by now and Sweet Child probably couldn’t make it. So we gear up to tool around where we are at:

We struggle with the gear, Sweet Child isn’t used to the snorkel and relying primarily on her legs and not her arms. She is getting a ton of salt water in the snorkel. I try to get her settled and we finally tool out about 50-75 feet from the shore look around and head back in. I’m a little bummed because I really wanted to get out to the snorkel lagoon but I didn’t want her to feel bad or that she “let dad down”. A big thing for my Sweet Child. We tool around for a bit and then head up. Sweet Child, “Wow! Dad we really went snorkeling! We went far! I’m glad you took me!”

Time spent getting gear and coming back: 25 Minutes
Cost of Gear: $25
Introducing Sweet Child to snorkeling and making a memory forever: priceless

Making sure that she had a positive experience and leaving the door open to take it further at a later date and time was far more important that seeing the sunken Mickey.

By now it is around 1 PM and we are starved so we head up to Cookies to eat. On our way up, we get asked by another family, “Is that Place included in our cruise or do we pay extra?” I smile smugly to myself as I turn my gaze of disdain from the hapless fools who either don’t know the Dis or didn’t heed its teachings, a return to my vacation. “Yes, its included”

The food was great! Of course food always taste better at the beach, you are more hungry! I ask Sweet Child if she wants Regular or BBQ Chips, she says BOTH! She sure is getting the hang of this cruise stuff! We all have a great lunch and then my wife and Mini Me come back with ice cream. Not just any ice cream. Soft Serve Cookie Dough ice cream! How could I have missed this in all the trip reports I have read!?!? It was great and nice little surprise to finish off lunch!

We then head over to the On Island Store to look at the towels. My wife and decided to get towels rather than T-Shirts (That way we can use them later!) While we are shopping we run into Rahmad, our buddy from the Store. He helps us make some selections and asks us how our dolphin excursion went. The girls tell him all about it.

We head back to the beach and the kids want to check out the play structure. Sweet Child swims out all by herself, I help Mini Me. The structure is okay but doesn’t really wow the kids, we head back. Mini Me is starting to get a bit touchy so we decide it is time to start wrapping things up. We knew that after a full day on the beach we were going to need naps for the kids. Sweet Child and I take one more quick dip to finish off the underwater camera:

As you can see she is quite the fish, actually they both are but the hour is late. We start walking back. I veer off to drop off the snorkel gear. I tell the fam I will meet them at the post office. After the post office we have a surprise! The post office was still closed when we got off the ship and we wanted to mail back postcards to family, teachers, and friends. The kids filled them out earlier in the trip. My wife had the address labels pre-done (Another great Dis Tip!) I hook back up with the fam and the natives are getting restless. Mini Me asks about the surprise and right then she comes off the ship DAISY!!!!!!

Another shot with Mini Me’s beloved Daisy!

We get scanned back in and head up to the room. Along the way Sweet Child is bemoaning the fact that they never got to the kid’s clubs. I reel off the activities of the last three days and ask her, “What would you have not wanted to do so you could go to the club?”

“UUUUUUUMMMMMMM Nothing?”

Sweet Child you have just learned an important cruise tip, you can’t do it all, and that’s okay!

We get back to the room and waiting in our little mail slot is “Magic Memories” Certificate. Rahmad sent us a certificate hoping that we had a great time on our dolphin excursion! A very nice touch! One that I made sure got noted on the comment card! The kids take baths, change clothes and go right to sleep:

I take a quick shower and then head out to the clubs to turn our pager back in and to Guest Services to apply the Disney Gift Cards we had gotten over the Christmas holidays, again, not wanting to face the crowds that night. I get back, DW heads out to Shutter’s and I read a bit. It is then time to get dressed for dinner. We get dressed first and then get the girls up, as you can see Mini Me wasn’t quite ready to get up:

We get dressed up and then its off for our last night on the Wonder!

Up Next: Dinner, Pins, Dreams, Goodbyes, and Keystone Packing!

 

[chepic]

Ashman....great job with the TR....you are up there with the greats!!!

Can't wait to read more.....and more importantly....can't wait for our trip....in 1 year! Glad to know there are more people like me out there that plan so far ahead!!

che

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Life Boat Drill, Pretty Pictures, Steak and other Muse-ings

Now I must set the stage for this next little bit. Some of the funniest things I have read on the Dis have been centered around the facilities and our interactions with them. The two that come most to mind are Grumpydude’s (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1228254 see page 5 post #72) introduction to the term shub (part shower part tub) and the Super Suck O’Matic (also know as the toilet). (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1228254 see Page 2 Post #24) Another legend in the Pantheon of Bathroom Lore is the infamous Sleepydog Tub Incident in his Trip Report (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1246056 see page 12 post #169) This is milk come out the nose funny!

With this in mind and alone with the admonition that I post pictures of me doing something goofy, I present to you my dear readers, this:

OMG that is priceless!!!!! And wearing the PFD to boot.

I think you're starting a new tradition here.....I think all trip reports should have a picture of a family member sitting in the shub.

 

[ashman]

This is the first trippie I've read thats had a detailed report about the Stingray Excursion. Thanks for sharing that. Might be something I'm going to look into.

Leave it to Disney to always think of everything. I love it.

P.S. I see your link worked. Nice job!

Thanks for you help on that!

What an entertaining trip report! Thanks for sharing so much about your trip and your family (they are adorable girls, BTW). I loved the dolphin photos.

My pleasure! It easy to share my blessings! I am a blessed man

Ashman....great job with the TR....you are up there with the greats!!!

Can't wait to read more.....and more importantly....can't wait for our trip....in 1 year! Glad to know there are more people like me out there that plan so far ahead!!

che

I don't know about that, but thanks for the consideration. You are in good company here! The cruise will be here before you know it!

 

[ashman]

OMG that is priceless!!!!! And wearing the PFD to boot.

I think you're starting a new tradition here.....I think all trip reports should have a picture of a family member sitting in the shub.

Great! SO it will be my fault that the stateroom attendants have to carry a 50 LB bucket of lard with them to grease us up when we get stuck and have to be pried out!

 

[ashman]

Chapter 22: Dinner, Pins, Dreams, Goodbyes, and Keystone Packing!

We wake the girls, get them dressed and head out for our last night on the Wonder. Our first stop was the atrium to get one last family shot with Mickey and Minnie. Here are the two girls waiting for the mouse:

We learn that the photo will be taken up on deck 4. We head there and find ourselves about 3rd in line. The mouse and his mate show up and we get a better picture with our camera than the folks from Shutter’s did! :

My wife cropped out the non-background background in the lower right corner for our scrapbook. We head back down to the Atrium where the piano player is playing Disney tunes. “I Know You” from Sleepy Beauty is being played and I start singing the lyrics. Sweet Child starts swaying and dancing. She then grabs my hand and I start twirling her. Mini Me decides she wants to get in on the action so I oblige to what became one of the best moments of the cruise for me:

We head in for Tritons for the last dinner. The girls all order (all together now) STEAK! I decide to be crazy and get the duck. It is all very good. For desert, Mini Me gets Ice Cream, Sweet Child gets the Chocolate Mousse, I get the Cherries Jubilee (which apparently isn’t prepared table side at cruises any more), and my dear wife gets the White Chocolate Dome with Raspberry. That was the best of the night to be sure. The Head Server comes by to introduce herself (just kidding) and states she hopes we had a great time and will put excellent on the card. We get a picture of our team with the girls:

and then our server takes on of us:

Its kinda amazing/sad that our server took a better “dinner” shot of our family than any of the Shutter’s folks did! After dinner I suggest that we walk out on the promenade. We haven’t been out there since the life boat drill. It is very windy but nice and I get one of my favorite pics of the trip:

We head to Treasure Ketch for the final shopping frenzy. My wife sees a towel she likes better than the one we cot at Castaway Cay and sends me back to the stateroom to get it and exchange. I do so, the clerk asks me if it has been on the Beach? I tell her it stayed in the bag at all times, besides I know better than to lie because the towel probably has a microchip and that there are cameras everywhere! She deadpans back, “How did you know? The Mouse knows all!” I love the fact that most of the crew have a great sense of humor! I hook back up for the girls and they have selected the Christmas ornament and gifts for the grandparents (the gifts shall remain disclosed as the grandparents haven’t gotten them yet! ). The girls now need to make the final selection for themselves. Mini Me wants a Tinker Bell Pin that you see Pin traders with. I was really hoping to avoid the pin trading thing don’t know why, just seems like a money pit to me. (I know apostasy! What can I say I am an unwashed heathen!) Sweet Child wants a snow globe that is A) more than she has left and B) is just begging to be smashed into a million pieces on the return trip having liquid we take it with us on the plan now can we? We find some ink pens that have Minnie Heads on the top that both girls are excited about. Sweet Child can takes hers to school and that’s good enough for her. We go to check out and the clerk waiting on us is Rahmad! I shake his hand and thank him for the sweet gesture with the certificate. He is very nice, checks us out, and then gives the girls each a Tinker Bell pin! It is a special pin that Cast Members get to give out randomly to help spread the magic to those they come in contact with. Another great Disney Moment that made it to the comment card! Mini Me got her pin after all! The girls are thrilled because they got to go shopping on the SHIP! This was a very important part of the trip for them. Remember earlier in the Trip Report Mini Me wanted to know why the shops were closed? I told her they had to be while we were tied up at port. Earlier that evening, when the ship was pulling out of Castaway Cay, the ship hadn’t even cleared the pier when Mini Me exclaimed, “Where out to sea, lets go to the shop!”

We head to the Theatre where get the exact same seats as we had the first two nights. While we were waiting, Mini Me’s pal from the beach and her family get in the row in front of us. The two of them start chatting up a storm:

The show is Disney Dreams and it is a great one. Well done, lots of fun moments. You had to remind yourself to pull back and look at the kids. It was a good show. The only thing I wondered about is they leave HUGE holes in the stage floor during certain sections of the show. I wonder if an actor even mis-stepped and fell into one?

After the show we head back to the room, behold the

Se our last towel animal, an elephant:

Now the dilemma, everything is pretty much together but we haven’t started packing yet. Do we hit the “Till We Meet Again Party” or do we pack? Do I take the kids and leave the wife to pack? (Like I’m going to pack we have all heard about the stories haven’t we?) My wife decides we can do both, I’m not sure but I figure to trust her on this one. As we head down to the atrium we get one final shot of the girls in “princess walk” mode:

SPOILER WARNINGS

Boy was I glad I listened to my wife! The party was great! The atrium turns into a clown car with character after character coming out of the woodwork! They then go to different parts on deck 3 and 4 and you get one last meet. The girls got to meet with Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The girl (Mary Anne?) from Disney Dreams, Goofy, Stitch, Minnie Mouse, and the “Lion King Couple”. We were told to expect to get to only about three. I am guessing that since most folks were from Ci-Ci’s that stayed home and that the hunting would have been harder with a more Dis-savvy group!

While we were waiting for Snow White I saw a kid that I thought I was going to go “Austin Powers” on. The kid had to be about 10 or 11 and was dressed in a Belle outfit but I swore it was a BOY! It really creeped me out. I wanted to grab the wig and yell, “But it’s a Man Man!” I kept the whole thing to myself.

The characters all then return to the stairwell between Decks 3 and 4 and the platform in front of Tritons. They then wave good bye to all parts of the room:

While waving to the last side of the room, Stitch grabs his ankles and begins to shake his bum to the last group. A little girl about 2 or 3 darts under the rope and gooses him in the caboose! She runs to the safety of the crowd. Stitch seeks her out and gives her a high five! Silly Stitch:

The ensemble sings the “Now It’s Time To Say Good Bye” Song. They sign out the M-O-U-S-E. After the E you hear Tinker Bell and “pixie dust” (Mickey Head shaped confetti) washes over us all. It was a great, tear jerking, lump in the throat, boy am I glad I did this moment! The kids start collecting as much of the stuff as they can. Donald gives them a handful on the way out and we say good bye to the First Couple of DCL:

We head back to the room, it is now 10:20, the bags have to be out in the hall by 11:00. We get back and stuff is flying! My wife looks and me and asks, “Did you see that kid in the Belle outfit who looked like a boy?” Whew I don’t felt so bad! When we packed for the trip we took our two biggest bags and nestled them in one another and packed the smaller bag so as to have an extra bad for the return trip. (Another Great Dis Tip) We had a kitchen sized garbage bag that had served as a hamper for us through out the week. That gets thrown into one bag and before you can say Jiminy Cricket, we are packed! I thought it was going to be a Keystone Cop kind of moment with the flailing and wailing and the weeping and gnashing of teeth. But we were packed and everything out of the room (Save toiletries and cloths for the next day of course) by 10:40. I have an amazing wife!

We go to bed knowing with heavy hearts that in the morning we must leave the ship!

Next: Now its time to say goodbye!

 

[Tink rules]

Great! SO it will be my fault that the stateroom attendants have to carry a 50 LB bucket of lard with them to grease us up when we get stuck and have to be pried out!

Great... another thing to pack...

Over the door organizer.....check

night light... check...

sun screen... check...

50 lb tub of Crisco....check

 

[dreamcometrue]

great trip report, and PRE trip report, Ashman! I read it all last night and loved every second of it! I am kind of glad I didn't find this one until now because all the anticipation would have killed me! I am not known for my patience!

Maybe I should start my trip report now. After all, my cruise is only 14 months and 1 week away!

 

[kevinsmom]

Your family looks sooo nice in the pics!!! Glad to hear you had a great time!!!

 

[hannahmom]

I love your report, your girls are very cute. Thanks so much for the great info on the Stringray excursion, we have it book for our cruise in April and was a little worried because not too many people talk about it, now I really can't wait to do it.

 

[Tink rules]

Are the girls still doing their walk at home????

Crowns are in order for this years Bday you know!!!

 

[spoon2003]

Ashman,
Thank you for a great report, especially for the CC stingway photos. I booked that excursion for our April trip but really haven't found much about it until your report

Sue