20051123 - November 23, 2005 Thanksgiving Wonder Cruise

[BethC1952]

We're thinking about Atlantis for that day, too, although not an official excursion. It seems easy enough to either take the harbor taxi or a regular old street taxi and go there. I'm not intimidated by traveling in strange cities. I once went to San Juan, PR by myself for two days before the rest of my friends arrived, and managed fairly well, even though I don't speak any Spanish, so how bad can it be, right?

I'm spending the week before the cruise in Atlantic City on business (it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it ), so I don't want to commit to anything just in case I'm in "casino overload" by then, which will mean that I've lost my $20 that I allow myself for gambling for the week and have nothing left to lose in the Bahamas!

It's hard to believe that the counter is FINALLY at 30 days. When it was over 250 days I thought my vacation would never come! Now it's less than 3 weeks in the office for me (and two holidays during that time) and the time is rushing by too quickly--I have so many reports and projects that have to be completed before I can leave!

 

[thegales]

I just found out that the Blue Lagoon Beach and the dolphin excursion are cancelled as of around Nov. 12th. I called DCL and they said yes it's true. Now I'm trying to figure out what we will do that day. We are thinking about Atlantis.

Darn. I wonder if they will have anything to replace it. I thought I finally had everything figured out. Time to start thinking again.


The good news: One month from today!!!!!!!!

 

[ImMarcik]

Darn. I wonder if they will have anything to replace it. I thought I finally had everything figured out. Time to start thinking again.


The good news: One month from today!!!!!!!!

I know, I've been stressing over this all day and driving my DH crazy. I tried to book a night at Atlantis but they are all booked up. It is kind of late trying to get new reservations I'm sure. I am also debating going on the website and cancelling the dolphin excursion. Did you cancel yours? Now we are just kind of thinking of going to the pirate musuem and taking more time on the ship.

 

[ImMarcik]

Marcie - I am not sure if you read this yet but:

Quote:
Originally Posted by George_Banks
A couple of updates. CC was apparantly hit fairly hard by the hurricane. The netting is down on the family beach so the "swim" part of the family beach is closed. The adult beach is now open to all people. Not ideal for DW and I, but I suppose they had to do something. There are also a few shore excursions that were damaged. Firstly, the stingrays are no-more. The netting came down and all the stingrays have escaped. This is no joke. DW and I were very upset about this but the stingrays are gone. Our money has already been refunded so this is definitely real. There were a few other boats that were damaged as well. I know banana boats and parasailing are in operation still, however some boat tours were damaged.


This came from the thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread...87#post10374887
__________________

Well someone just sent me this. I had the stingray excursion booked. Back to square one on both of my port days.

Also, my father in law is in the hospital. They had to call 911 early this morning. After the hurricane he had climbed on his roof and fell through. They think he has a blood clot. Well the last pain med they gave him a few days ago, they now think he had a reaction to. Everything is a mess. I don't know what's going to happen.

 

[thegales]

Marcie, so sorry to hear about your dad. Hope he is doing okay.

Regarding excursions... I am hoping the sting rays will be back by the time we get there. This is getting depressing.

I looked our reservation at DCL, and it still has Blue Lagoon. I tried to see if there were any other excursions available at Nassau, and I didn't see any. I don't know if the web site is smart, and doesn't show excursions if we already have one booked.

Arg!

 

[ImMarcik]

Yes, you got it right. The website is smart. I called DCL back again and asked them why I was still reserved for the dolpin thing if they were cancelling it and should I cancel it to see what else was available. They told me to cancel it because I was cancelled anyway. Once I cancelled it I saw everything that was available. I really still don't know what to do. We looked into booking the dolphin encounter direct. We've also talked about the pirate musuem. For CC I am going to keep it booked and hope the stringrays find their way home before we get there. Since we probably are not doing the dolphins we've been talking about getting a limo to the airport with the extra money. I did get a spot at 1:30 direct with the dolphin thing but my DH is a little leery about doing an excursion that's not through disney, so I don't know if I will book it. Any thoughts???

 

[thegales]

I would think booking it on your own would be okay. I have seen enough positive comments about it.

Since we were only going to be doing the beach party, we will probably look for something else to do.

I was just looking at other excursions on the web site, and Disney is still showing Blue Lagoon as a choice. I just called to get confirmation, and she was very certain that it had been cancelled. But she did not have any reasons why. So we will cancel and try to book something else. The good news is that she had no information on the Sting Rays at Castaway Cay. It could be they are expecting that to come back.

 

[thegales]

Well, I booked Blackbeard's Cay Stingray & Beach Adventure. I'll do some more research to get some other comments.

Forgive me for a moment, but...

I WANT TO SEE A STING RAY!!!!!

Let me explain. We had booked a Western cruise last October and were really looking forward to going to Grand Cayman and doing Capt. Marvin's Stingray City. The Hurricanes wiped out Grand Cayman, so we went to Costa Maya instead. (by the way, we had a great time at Costa Maya, but we didn't see any Stingrays).

So, I book the Castaway Cay Sting Ray adventure since we missed it at Grand Cayman. I start getting excited. And now that may be cancelled.

So, let's see what happens with Blackbeards.

Okay, I am better now. Sorry for that.

 

[ImMarcik]

Well, I booked Blackbeard's Cay Stingray & Beach Adventure. I'll do some more research to get some other comments.

Forgive me for a moment, but...

I WANT TO SEE A STING RAY!!!!!

Let me explain. We had booked a Western cruise last October and were really looking forward to going to Grand Cayman and doing Capt. Marvin's Stingray City. The Hurricanes wiped out Grand Cayman, so we went to Costa Maya instead. (by the way, we had a great time at Costa Maya, but we didn't see any Stingrays).

So, I book the Castaway Cay Sting Ray adventure since we missed it at Grand Cayman. I start getting excited. And now that may be cancelled.

So, let's see what happens with Blackbeards.

Okay, I am better now. Sorry for that.

Well let's hope you get to see them this time. I thought of blackbeards too now that CC may be out. I did get to see stingrays about 6 years ago when I was snorkeling on my own. They are neat. I know I am runnin gout of time, but I still can't make up my mind. I have until Nov 13th to pay for the dolphin encounter if we do that.

 

[BethC1952]

We saw sting rays at the adult beach at CC last year. We were the last people there as the tide was going out. There was an adult and a baby, and they were swimming around our feet in about two feet of water. It was awesome. Jim and I had the feeling that the sting rays were checking US out! It was a great ending to what had been a perfect day at CC.

 

[genmasjoy]

Guess what! Our cruise documents arrived today! After the past week with the hurricane going right over our house and having no power for several days plus trying to track down repairmen, I was definitely ready for something nice to happen, and what could be better than the Fedex guy ringing the doorbell, tickets in hand!
I wouldn't stress about Nassau too much, there are always plenty of cabs and water taxis right at the pier if you want to go over to Atlantis. Bay Street, where the shops are, is within walking distance. We took our son to the Pirate Museum when he was younger (it's also within walking distance) and he loved it.

 

[thegales]

woot woot genmasjoy. Hopefully we will all receive them this week.

 

[BethC1952]

Wow! I actually didn't realize how close the cruise is getting!

We're thinking about going to Atlantis (either regular taxi or water taxi, but no excursion) while in Nassau. We also have to go to the Del Sol store--my DGD (age 5) has given me a list of things that "it would be so nice if you brought back from your trip for me since you're going without me." She wants some barrettes, a tee shirt and a tote bag for her stuffed animals, and maybe some of that "cool color changing nail polish" to use her words! So I guess we won't stay on board in Nassau!

 

[ImMarcik]

Guess what!! I didn't get my cruise docs yet but I did find out that they found a dolphin replacement and we now are doing the dolphin encounter again.

 

[thegales]

We got our documents today!!!

 

[BethC1952]

Congratulations! We haven't gotten ours yet, but we did get our Magical Express stuff yesterday!

I'm going shopping tomorrow to buy new shoes for the cruise. I guess I didn't realize that losing 20 pounds would make my feet shrink! I can't figure out why that's about the only place that the weight loss shows !

Oh well, three weeks from today, I will be enjoying my first-ever meal at Palo (brunch). It's certainly better than the lunch I will "enjoy" today (McDonald's, which is directly across the street from my office, and our payday treat to ourselves here).

 

[ImMarcik]

Still haven't gotten my documents. Maybe I will attack the UPS guy when I see him at work today. Hahaha just kidding. I want my docs!

We are leaving for WDW in 2 weeks from today. I'm going shopping this weekend to get my DD some shoes. Beth your foot is shrinking and hers is a growing. LOL. Really I think her foot is finally coming to a stop. Phew.

I read yesterday that some of the stingrays are back and they are going to do a mini stingray excursion today at CC. I went from excursions to no excursions to excursions. Gotta love those hurricanes.

 

[glindamood]

No documents here in Michigan yet. Once you get those documents in your hands - it really makes it so real.

 

[BethC1952]

It's funny--I'm at that point now that when my mind wanders, I'm picturing things on the ship--but not the things you'd think of! I can see, as clearly as if I'm standing there, the lovely ladies' room on Deck 3 (I think) where I helped my DGD get her Sleeping Beauty outfit straightened out so she could get her picture taken with Princess Aurora. I can picture the mid-ship stairwell between Decks 3 and 4, the stairs down from Deck 10 to the adult pool, the hallway outside my room on Deck 6 (from two cruises ago). You'd think I would imagine the pool, the food, even Castaway Cay or something, but no, I think about things like hallways, stairways and bathrooms!

BTW, unless we decide to do something else, I will be waiting at the aft end of Deck 10 at 3:15 PM on embarkation day. I can't wait to meet all of you!

 

[ImMarcik]

We got our documents today.