"Double Dip Delight" Alternate Western 09/27/08

[tinkerone]

what is this double dip thing? i have seen it on several sites. just curious as to wether or not i'm missing something.

 

[zweihund]

what is this double dip thing? i have seen it on several sites. just curious as to wether or not i'm missing something.

Double Dip is two stops at Castaway Cay instead of the usual one. Some of the itineraries have had it in the past, and they brought it back!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Thank you NHdisneylover for your insight into the ruins!!

I am probably all alone in the anti-lanyard crowd...ONLY because I hate wearing fabric around my neck.
(I'm always getting in trouble at work for losing my badge cause it's just on a clip....)

I can't tolerate the lei's for too long either...(long enough to get through the sail away party, tho)

My husband doesn't wear his either--but most people do. Actually my son's broke, so we used Dave's for Rio for the last half of our crossing! I like the lanyards because most of my summer clothes have no pockets and I don't carry a purse around the ship. As Chris (Scoobypop) pointed out, these are a very think string--I find them MUCH more comfortable than the castaway club lanyards DCL hands out. Also, at times I just threw it over my shoulder instead of wearing it around my neck.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Okay, so here's the third installment on the Kohunlich review/discription. I will get to the really good stuff (actaully the ruins) on the next installment I promise. I am going into so much detail because there were people who hated this excursion who were on the bus with us 9two groups--neither had ever left the U.S. before) so I figure the best way for someone to know if their family will like it is to have as much info. as possible.

When we arrived at Kohunlich we parked at the entrance along with the other busses. We were told we had about 20 minutes to use the restrooms, etc. while they checked us in. Also, people with video cameras had to go and pay a fee to bring it into the ruins (this is the case at all ruin in Mexico I believe, I know it is the case in Tulum).

We waited in line for the restrroms (and added extra sunscreen to faces on top of what we had put on before leaving) and it was a good thing we did as we weren't back at that area (only restrooms) until it was time to reboard the bus. We felt the restrooms were very good for Mexico (my parents live there so we have used plenty). They were clean and there was toliet paper, running water and soap at the sinks. Those who did not like the excursion were not happy with the restrooms. The stall doors were short enough that you could see over them if standing and toliet paper needed to be thrown in a wastebasket, not the toliet (which some people found "disgusting"). After using the facilities we all met by our bus and each got another cold bottle of water before heading out. Also, we were told we could leave items on the bus (we did leave everything but water--including my son's L-Max and it was all still right where we lef tit when we returned).

As we headed down the path into the ruins, we noticed each tour guide went in a different direction. So we were never in the same place at the same time as another group which really helped. We also noticed a lot of mosquitoes. I had not thought to pack repellant. I highly recomend repellant! Also, we found out after our vacation when we tried to give blood that COSTA MAYA IS ON THE CDC LIST OF PLACES WITH A DANGER OF MALARIA. According to the CDC we should have been on antimalarial meds. to go to Costa MAya at all and certainly to head all those miles in land. SIlly me, I figured DCL would let me knwo if htey were going somewhere that carried that risk and never thought to check myself. I really should have known better. Anyway, you may want to talk to your doctor about htis before hte trip no matter what excursion you plan. Ours seems to think if we stay in the immediate port area it will be well enough sprayed to pose virtually no risk but is we want to go anywhere (immediate port area is small) we shoudl take something (he did his residency abroad and actaully has quite a bit of experience with Malaria).

Next up--the ruins (and photos if Dave will post them for me).

 

[tig82174]

Yeah...folks are right....there's no shame in not wearing a lanyard. To be honest Jason and I NEVER wear anything like that usually...in fact, we've avoided the whole Disney "pin scene" for years because we didn't want that hot bulky (and heavy with pins) lanyard around our neck all day.....so we didn't think we were going to wear our lanyard on the cruise, either...but then it ended up (as Hadley pointed out) being such a convenient way to carry important stuff like our ID and Key to the World card (because we don't carry a wallet aboard, either) that I ended up carrying them everywhere. If I do head up the lanyard effort...I will definitely order ones similar to the ones we had on the repo that are smaller and made of a softer fabric (like thick shoe-laces) because they were less bulky and much more comfortable to wear....and again, if you don't like to wear them...no hard feelings you get to take it home as a souvenir!! (Chris and his partner, Rob, and Hadley's hubby Dave were 3 of my favorite guys on the boat....and they never wore theirs but I love em anyway! hehehe)

I just love that new image posted above, too.....I'm so impressed with how creative everyone is in making images for this trip! With all that talent I'm SURE someone will come up with a great idea for a nametag with room for a name and a DISBoard screenname....then if they send me that image I'd be happy to get them printed up so we have awesome name badges to put in our lanyards!

 

[tig82174]

Okay, so here's the third installment on the Kohunlich review/discription. I will get to the really good stuff (actaully the ruins) on the next installment I promise. I am going into so much detail because there were people who hated this excursion who were on the bus with us 9two groups--neither had ever left the U.S. before) so I figure the best way for someone to know if their family will like it is to have as much info. as possible.

When we arrived at Kohunlich we parked at the entrance along with the other busses. We were told we had about 20 minutes to use the restrooms, etc. while they checked us in. Also, people with video cameras had to go and pay a fee to bring it into the ruins (this is the case at all ruin in Mexico I believe, I know it is the case in Tulum).

We waited in line for the restrroms (and added extra sunscreen to faces on top of what we had put on before leaving) and it was a good thing we did as we weren't back at that area (only restrooms) until it was time to reboard the bus. We felt the restrooms were very good for Mexico (my parents live there so we have used plenty). They were clean and there was toliet paper, running water and soap at the sinks. Those who did not like the excursion were not happy with the restrooms. The stall doors were short enough that you could see over them if standing and toliet paper needed to be thrown in a wastebasket, not the toliet (which some people found "disgusting"). After using the facilities we all met by our bus and each got another cold bottle of water before heading out. Also, we were told we could leave items on the bus (we did leave everything but water--including my son's L-Max and it was all still right where we lef tit when we returned).

As we headed down the path into the ruins, we noticed each tour guide went in a different direction. So we were never in the same place at the same time as another group which really helped. We also noticed a lot of mosquitoes. I had not thought to pack repellant. I highly recomend repellant! Also, we found out after our vacation when we tried to give blood that COSTA MAYA IS ON THE CDC LIST OF PLACES WITH A DANGER OF MALARIA. According to the CDC we should have been on antimalarial meds. to go to Costa MAya at all and certainly to head all those miles in land. SIlly me, I figured DCL would let me knwo if htey were going somewhere that carried that risk and never thought to check myself. I really should have known better. Anyway, you may want to talk to your doctor about htis before hte trip no matter what excursion you plan. Ours seems to think if we stay in the immediate port area it will be well enough sprayed to pose virtually no risk but is we want to go anywhere (immediate port area is small) we shoudl take something (he did his residency abroad and actaully has quite a bit of experience with Malaria).

Next up--the ruins (and photos if Dave will post them for me).

Hadley....that's very interesting info about Malaria in Costa Maya...I will definitely talk to my doctor about that before the trip!!

 

[zweihund]

I didn't even THINK about the whole mosquitoes/malaria thing. Good info!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Okay I want to post photos of the ruins but I can't figure it out. Can anyone tell me how? Pretty please?

 

[scoutsmom99]

Okay I want to post photos of the ruins but I can't figure it out. Can anyone tell me how? Pretty please?

Go to Photobucket.com and sign up for a free account and load your pictures to the site. Then when the are loaded copy the img code (last option) and come paste them in your post. Instant pictures

 

[NHdisneylover]

Thanks Soutsmom99 Let's see if this works. Here (hopefully) is the map of the ruins which is posted at the trailhed before you head through a line of tress and to the ruins themselves.

Hey--it worked! Okay, as you can tell there is quite a bit there to see. As this has been excavated, the jungle has been cut back in the immediate area of the ruins (though there are still lots of trees) to make it easier to see and get to everything. There is lots of grass which is well mowed and it was really quite easy to get around. The guided tour part lasted about an hour and a half and consisted of the guide leading us to a structure, gathering us in shade if possible and giving us a 5 minute or so explanation of the area and then giving us 5-20 minutes to explore it on our own (depending on the size of it and how different/interesting it was). Our guide was always more than happy to answer extra questions during the exploration periods (we seemed to have a lot of those). We alos got 30 minutes of explore tiem on our own at teh end of the tour. Lots of people left to go back to air coniditioning on the busses at that point, so the few of us left really got to explore empty rooms at that point.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Here are the steps up to the arcopolis (where we happened to start). Amazing views of the ruins and jungle from up there as well.

Here's one of the housing sturctures. Much lower quality of construction here than in the temple and ball court, etc. Those Mayan had their priorities

 

[NHdisneylover]

For some strange reason we do not have a photo of the main temple (pyramid) from afar. I think it was hard to get a good shot through the surrounding trees. Also, the sides have a thatched cover over them now to protect the carvings which may have looked funny to Dave (he is our photographer). Those protected carving are amazing and many still have their original red pigment (what they are trying to protect). Here you can see three of them heading on up the pyramid (notice that red?):

Here is a close up of a mask (I htink there are 3 but maybe 4 on each side).

 

[NHdisneylover]

Just a couple more photos I promise. The ball court is not nearly as exciting to look at as reading about it had made it sound. It is mostly a big flat area (sort of liek a soccer field--same basic idea, big place to play ball. But here is anyway. The view is of the side which has walls built up woth sloping tops to roll the ball back at the playing field:

And David at the "big house" We could go in and wander the "rooms" in this at our leisure.

 

[NHdisneylover]

We headed back to the bus area at the appointed time. It started to rain on us as we walked back. We were so darn hot that it felt GOOD to us We used the restrooms again and lined up to get on the bus home. As we boarded we were handed another COLD water and our box lunches (it was getting pretty late, I think a bit after one and we had been doing a lot of walking so we were hungry).

Erik can attest to the fact that I am a very picky eater and my son Rio is the pickiest kid on the planet (he doesn't even like kid food like french fries, mac n cheese, burgers, or hot dogs!). We had spent the week pre crusie at WDW on the dining plan. I had used some of our extra counter service credits to get snack boxes from our hotel food court. The boxes were hard plastic lunchbox type things which came with peanut butter carckers, raisens, applesauce and a juice box. That counted as an entree (was too costly to use a snack credit for) and I could also choose a drink and dessert. I had gotten mickey rice crispie treats for the dessert and had been able to fit them in the boxes. I got these specifically to bring along on the excursion for lunch. Sure enough lunch was tuna fish (dark tuna--and not cold enough for me too feel good about it) with some funky sides. The kids and I were very happy to have our own food (and I think I could have sold those boxes for $20 a piece to any number of parents on board we got a lot of "I wish I had thought of that" commnets).
Many of the sides were pre packaged Pan Bimbo items which our guide asked us not to open if we did not want them and to leave on the seats at the end of the trip so he could take them to local children in need. We left some of our own snacks we had brought as well. If I had known to bring school supplies or treats of some kind I feel confident he would have gotten them to the right people.
We got back in time to wander around the port area for a coupole of hours if we had wanted to. We just made a quick loop to see it and then were drawn toward our luxiourious liner with air conditioning and ICE CREAM.
And so ends the saga of our trek through the jungle to see Kohunlich.

 

[Epperbiker]

When we visited Costa Maya in November 2006, we arranged a day at Maya Palms resort. It was a short taxi ride away but felt like we were 100 miles from the crowds at the Cruise Ship docks. Very friendly people, beautiful orchid-filled gardens, nice clean pool, and tasty food. The water was quite choppy that particular day but we still enjoyed the snorkeling. The owners are from the U.S. so language was not an issue.

http://www.mayapalms.com/cruisers.htm

 

[Buckeye Gal]

Holy smokes! I was out-of-pocket for a few days, and I have 5 pages of posts to catch up on!

I'll work on getting updates here from the postings as well as those that have been sent to our DoubleDip09-2008@hotmail.com account to Marsha in the next couple of days! I'll also create a new "interests" category for the lanyards so whomever organizes that initiative can get a general idea for the volume, thus the pricing.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

 

[Scoobypop]

Erik can attest to the fact that I am a very picky eater and my son Rio is the pickiest kid on the planet (he doesn't even like kid food like french fries, mac n cheese, burgers, or hot dogs!).

Just give her a chocolate souffle from Palo and she'll be fine for hours

Thanks for the info and the pics, those are awesome!

 

[tig82174]

Just give her a chocolate souffle from Palo and she'll be fine for hours

Thanks for the info and the pics, those are awesome!

hours? who are you kidding......Hadley probably can work herself through a Palo Soufle faster than Rio can answer a question at Mickey Mania!!! hehehe

 

[NHdisneylover]

Just give her a chocolate souffle from Palo and she'll be fine for hours

Thanks for the info and the pics, those are awesome!

Yeah--Hi Chris, where've ya been? On my shopping list for this weekend--Ramikins so I can try my hand at making them now that you have given me the recipe I'll let you know how THAT comes out. Trying not to think about how bad for you they really are though (lots of heavy cream and egg yolks). And alas, Erik is correct, to keep me busy for hours you'd have to give me MANY souffles I did seem to finish mine well ahead of everyone else at Palo's didn't I?

 

[DizzneyDAnn]

I think he meant you'd stay full/satisfied for hours. Though...really...that is in question, too, isn't it? Especially if that's ALL you eat. As a souffle-ologists, I recommend a daily allowance of 6, give or take half a dozen...

I don't even belong on this thread. Please someone tell me to go do my laundry.