Cruising the Dream on our 1st cruise ever!!! (5 Night Double Dip)

[MEK]

I read your last update today PRE work. Great detail with the cabana breakfast pictures and that walk does look pretty far.

I think I may have missed an update or two since you are moving pretty fast.

I love your TR. I continued to learn a lot. I didn't even know there WAS an observation tower. Cool!

 

[Pinkocto]

I read your last update today PRE work. Great detail with the cabana breakfast pictures and that walk does look pretty far.

I think I may have missed an update or two since you are moving pretty fast.

I love your TR. I continued to learn a lot. I didn't even know there WAS an observation tower. Cool!

and here I'm thinking I'm going to slow. It's been three weeks and I've only done two and a half days

There are links to each update on page one if you think you've missed any and want to see.

Thank you

 

[franandaj]

and here I'm thinking I'm going to slow. It's been three weeks and I've only done two and a half days

There are links to each update on page one if you think you've missed any and want to see.

Thank you

Don't feel pressured, it is a lot of work. Besides between yours and PIO's HKDL TR I'm barely keeping up, not to mention that I plan on launching my TR live next weekend.

We'll keep following just keep a comfortable pace and everything will be fine.

 

[Pinkocto]

We have just gotten to the pathway to the observation tower. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A lovely large plumeria

and a little one on the ground. I have never seen these in the wild so this was pretty neat for me.

If I wasn't worried how far it would take I would have loved to explore this pathway to who knows where.

Some goodies left behind by previous castaways.

I loved these spikey little flowers, kept trying to get a better picture.

Someone had rat traps out. A very un-Disney touch in my opinion.

I'm sure this could come in handy if we needed to rappel off a mountain.

and who knows why the former castaways lugged this out to the middle of the jungle...

It was monstrous!

I wanted to take one of these home but they were too high.

We can finally see the observation tower!!!!

that little tendril plant is something that attaches to other plants and lives on them.

reached photo limit, continued on next post.

 

[Pinkocto]

I wish I knew what that big ball on the branch was. Anybody know? some kind of growth?

more leftover supplies.

We made it!

there were a few sets of binoculars but unfortunately they didn't work, the lenses were fogged or salty inside.

Back on the ground. I was glad we went but I'm not sure we'll be back unless we rent bikes.

I'm sorry if all this foliage is boring, but I just love plants.

first I was fascinated by the tendril like things, and then noticed the pretty flowers.

goodbye observation tower.

and then an ominous cloud decided to come by.

 

[Pinkocto]

this propeller has seen better days. Goofy must have been here.

I was genuinely getting worried by this cloud. Thought any second a huge rain storm would happen.

The sky was clear behind us so hopefully a storm wasn't coming.

These castaways were now on the verge of littering in my book.

Hmmm.... I'd been taking lots of photos, hopefully I hadn't gotten too close to one of these poisonous plants they never mentioned before.

orchids. It would have been so pretty if there were flowers.

awwww, the cloud was finally gone.

but now we've found waste oil. my goodness.

there is absolutely no way these fruits are still good. I loved all these Disney touches.

this is when I needed a bigger zoom. I wanted a picture of that bird!

and we're finally back on the airstrip heading to Serenity Bay. Whew! My feet were killing me.

 

[Pinkocto]

Don't feel pressured, it is a lot of work. Besides between yours and PIO's HKDL TR I'm barely keeping up, not to mention that I plan on launching my TR live next weekend.

We'll keep following just keep a comfortable pace and everything will be fine.

Launching your TR live, can't wait for that! I really had no idea how long it would take, but it is really nice to relive this trip.

Some days like today I have extra time and others I can just get a quick update or none at all. Slow and steady wins the race, I don't want to stress and not want to do another one of these.

Thanks

 

[Angel16]

Some days like today I have extra time and others I can just get a quick update or none at all. Slow and steady wins the race, I don't want to stress and not want to do another one of these.

Thanks

Aww don't say you don't want to do another TR. This has been so much fun and we are only half way through your cruise. OK....now I am ready to book a Disney cruise because of you. Just a few minutes ago I was looking at the DU site and thinking? Who is the best to book with and when should I go?

Please take your time with your TR and enjoy your journey. We will be here when you are ready for an update. After all.....a lot of us are waiting for our trips or due to various reason not going this year. So we are enjoying a vacation with you!

Ann

 

[Pinkocto]

Aww don't say you don't want to do another TR. This has been so much fun and we are only half way through your cruise.

Oh no, I just meant I need to make sure I don't stress myself and continue to enjoy. I really like re-reading my journal and looking at all the pictures again. This is a lot of fun.

OK....now I am ready to book a Disney cruise because of you. Just a few minutes ago I was looking at the DU site and thinking? Who is the best to book with and when should I go?

I like the sound of this! What did you decide?

Please take your time with your TR and enjoy your journey. We will be here when you are ready for an update. After all.....a lot of us are waiting for our trips or due to various reason not going this year. So we are enjoying a vacation with you!

Ann

Thank you Ann :

 

[dgbg100106]

Launching your TR live, can't wait for that! I really had no idea how long it would take, but it is really nice to relive this trip.

Some days like today I have extra time and others I can just get a quick update or none at all. Slow and steady wins the race, I don't want to stress and not want to do another one of these.

Thanks

It took me forever to do the balitc trip and I felt like I was not putting much effort into it by day 13.... But it is a very nice way to relive it later... Well worth the effort.

Keep up the good work!

 

[nenis]

I just cant get enough of your pictures!
those things you wanted to take home but were too high, are actually fruits.
In Honduras we call them Wapinole. I tried googling a translation but couldnt find one. the shells are hard. You eat them when they are black and fallen off the tree. its for those with acquired taste to sandy textures. I like them

interesting seeing them here.
Thanks for sharing

 

[cjlvsccm]

I just cant get enough of your pictures!
those things you wanted to take home but were too high, are actually fruits.
In Honduras we call them Wapinole. I tried googling a translation but couldnt find one. the shells are hard. You eat them when they are black and fallen off the tree. its for those with acquired taste to sandy textures. I like them

interesting seeing them here.
Thanks for sharing

Thanks for that info, nenis!

Pinkocto, be glad you didn't really retrieve one of those fruits to take home. I read another TR that noted a pile of things that had been confiscated from guests before re-boarding... starfish, conch shells, and the like. How embarrassing that would be!!

 

[Linda67]

Wonderful pictures
Thanks so much for sharing your walk with us

 

[Pinkocto]

I just cant get enough of your pictures!
those things you wanted to take home but were too high, are actually fruits.
In Honduras we call them Wapinole. I tried googling a translation but couldnt find one. the shells are hard. You eat them when they are black and fallen off the tree. its for those with acquired taste to sandy textures. I like them

interesting seeing them here.
Thanks for sharing

I'm glad you're enjoying them

Thanks so much for the info. They looked like seed pods. I was really surprised to see the cacti. There was so many different wonderful plants.

Thanks for that info, nenis!

Pinkocto, be glad you didn't really retrieve one of those fruits to take home. I read another TR that noted a pile of things that had been confiscated from guests before re-boarding... starfish, conch shells, and the like. How embarrassing that would be!!

You're so right, I didn't even think about that! I saw a few confiscated things too and would have happily taken one of those without a second thought. I know myself, and I would have been embarrassed for sure.

Wonderful pictures
Thanks so much for sharing your walk with us

Thank you I'm hoping to get another update done tonight.

 

[Leshaface]

WHOA! I'm gone for 2 days and you've made like 20 updates!

You got some great shots of the buffet breakfast. I'm definitely disappointed that we never made it to any of those restaurants for breakfast and only stayed at Cabanas for breakfast. I must plan better next time.

Your shots of CC are lovely! Makes me miss CC so much. Especially since I know the next time we cruise, they'll have taken away the double dip to CC. Sad in my opinion.

 

[Pinkocto]

WHOA! I'm gone for 2 days and you've made like 20 updates!

You got some great shots of the buffet breakfast. I'm definitely disappointed that we never made it to any of those restaurants for breakfast and only stayed at Cabanas for breakfast. I must plan better next time.

Your shots of CC are lovely! Makes me miss CC so much. Especially since I know the next time we cruise, they'll have taken away the double dip to CC. Sad in my opinion.

And here I'm thinking I'm going too slowly!

We really enjoyed Cabanas but I'm glad I 'made' us try all the options so we knew what we'd like to do next time.

CC was so wonderful. We really enjoyed the double dip, and I just can't understand why they'd take it away. I hope they bring it back. More to come on this day and lots more on day 5. Do you have any thoughts when you'll cruise again?

 

[Pinkocto]

Now that I could barely walk since I foolishly wore new sandals I slowly made my way down the airstrip taking pictures all the while.

Beautiful blue sky. I knew that rain this morning wasn't around to stay. Later when we got back on the ship I heard rumblings that a lot of people were very worried about the weather.

More snails, and only on this kind of bush. I have never seen this kind of thing before in all my travels so really was fascinated.

I just loved the diverse plant life.

Place to park your bikes.

Cabana and massage check-in area.

Path to the Cabanas. this is to the right of the entrance to Serenity Bay, SB.

These pilots are not the best in the land if they keep crashing...

Another nice warning sign.

Ahhhh, we'd made it!!!

 

[Pinkocto]

It was the perfect place.

We drug some chairs down to the water and I sat with my aching feet in the warm wonderful ocean. Even the chairs have Mickeys!

I sat and wrote in my journal while mom read, and the time just flew by. At some point I wanted to try one of the infamous Konk Koolers so we headed up to the bar, and when heading back to our chairs happened to ask someone the time. When he had last looked at a clock it was 1:45 lunch ends at 2:00 We hightail it around the corner, thankfully we didn't have to go far, but the bad thing is I didn't have my camera with me, left it with the chairs, so I completely missed lunch pictures. All I can say is it was delicious. They only had red meat out, and I had read somewhere they serve fish so asked the chef about it. He freshly cooked me 2 salmon fillets. Whatever seasoning he had marinated it in was fabulous. They also cooked mom a veggie burger and insisted they find us a table and would bring us the grilled food. We also had couscous with feta cheese, olives, peppers, and zucchini. Tomato, onion, pepper medley in olive oil and vinegar, the CM was so sweet and only gave me tomatos so I didn't have to pick out the others. There is also a soda station, chocolate chip cookies, pineapple cake, and softserve icecream. They didn't rush us but insisted in getting us refills of soda and asked if we needed anything else. As soon as we were done, only about ten minutes after two everything was cleaned up, the soda station closed and the CMs back to the ship to probably start getting ready for dinner. The Konk Kooler craving saved the day because we definitely would have missed out on lunch if I hadn't wanted one. I still had the wonderful beverage and back to the chairs we went to enjoy it. All our belongings were as we left them, I had our KTTW cards to buy the drink but that was it.

We spent the next couple hours just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather. I finally caught up in my journal and just enjoyed the tranquility of SB. We probably headed back around 4-4:30 because we still stopped by the Family Beach to see some views of the ship.

 

[franandaj]

That was a long walk! You sure are moving along here. I still need to read your update from the other day on my computer. The cell phone just doesn't do the pictures justice.

 

[Pinkocto]

That was a long walk! You sure are moving along here. I still need to read your update from the other day on my computer. The cell phone just doesn't do the pictures justice.

I'm glad it wasn't in the heat of summer or we would have been miserable walking there and back. Other than my feet hurting I'm glad we went. Except when bikers passed us we had the path to ourselves which was really nice. I have to work long hours the next three days so wanted to get a few updates in, not sure when I'll be able to next.