From the Sea to the World - Completed!

[englishrose47]

Great update Magdalene !!! We didn't spend much time at the family beach basically just enough to take candid shots of Wooden Marv!!!We all LOVED the Adult beach !!!

 

[glennbo123]

That really looks like a beautiful beach Magdalene. And those drinks looked/sounded great.

I hope Michael felt better soon. It's easy to get a little too much sun and have a reaction like that.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

After lunch it was finally time to get a drink! I had looked at the drinks menu posted at the bar before lunch and once we were back at our chairs we ordered a drink from one of the servers that roam along the beach:

It was called Deep Blue Sea – and as you can see they got the colour right! I remember that it involved blue curacao and sprite – but there were more ingredients. It was quite lovely and refreshing. Very good drink!

An interesting drink, and sounds like a refreshing one for a hot day on the beach!

Nice to see you got to "stick your toe in the sand!"

Then a snorkeler started to swim over to us. And swam around us and the stingray for a short moment as well. And then he proceeded to get closer to it and finally swam directly over it. And with that the stingray did not enjoy hanging out here anymore and swam away, the snorkeler tried to chase it, but wasn’t really successful and our entertainment was gone. It was good that we were at the adult beach as the terms we used to talk about this guy were not really kid friendly…

Too bad your entertainment got spoiled.

But this was our destination:

Sounds like a fun and unique experience ending your slide into the salt water!

I needed to get some more pictures as this had been a day with very few pictures so far!

Castaway Cay is so beautiful, and I love these flower shots!!!

Looks like you had a very successful day fishing! You came out a real "weiner" it appears!!!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It was called Deep Blue Sea – and as you can see they got the colour right! I remember that it involved blue curacao and sprite – but there were more ingredients. It was quite lovely and refreshing. Very good drink!

Looks like an interesting combo, and I love the color.

And with that the stingray did not enjoy hanging out here anymore and swam away, the snorkeler tried to chase it, but wasn’t really successful and our entertainment was gone. It was good that we were at the adult beach as the terms we used to talk about this guy were not really kid friendly…

You could have splashed some salt water down his snorkel.

By that time it was obvious that the family beach was starting to get emptier, there were plenty of chairs which obiously had been in use during the day but had now freed up. Some had used towels from the ship on them. I guess people thought that since it is all Disney, it does not matter?

Or they just think: I'm on vacation, so it's somebody else's problem?

You have to swim out to the platform, then there is a line and you get to choose between two different slides. We did both of them. They were fun slides and they dump you into water which is actually quite deep at the end. That was fun. However, make sure to hold your nose (or exhale when you hit the water) otherwise you end up with a lot of salt water up your nose.

Looks like fun! But I've had the same problem in the past with water up the nose. Not as much fun.

While walking there Michael started to feel worse and worse. He had spent less time under the umbrella and I think he had gotten a little bit too much of the sun and heat.

Oh, I hate it when that happens. A "heat headache" never goes away easily.

 

[dekkerdisneydreamer]

The slide looks awesome! Love the flora/fauna pictures!

 

[Flossbolna]

Great update Magdalene !!! We didn't spend much time at the family beach basically just enough to take candid shots of Wooden Marv!!!We all LOVED the Adult beach !!!

I much preferred the adult beach, too. But the water slide was great fun, I would not have wanted to miss out on that!

That really looks like a beautiful beach Magdalene. And those drinks looked/sounded great.

I hope Michael felt better soon. It's easy to get a little too much sun and have a reaction like that.

It was quite a perfect beach - would love to be back there with a blue drink in my hand!

I think Michael caught it just in time. If we had returned 20 minutes or so earlier, he would have been fine, I think.

 

[Flossbolna]

An interesting drink, and sounds like a refreshing one for a hot day on the beach!

It was really good!

Nice to see you got to "stick your toe in the sand!"

Actually taking this picture was more difficult than one would think!! That's why I am holding my foot at a strange angle...

Too bad your entertainment got spoiled.

I just did not understand his actions...

Sounds like a fun and unique experience ending your slide into the salt water!

Yes, you'd think chlorined water is bad! Salt water gives the whole thing a different aspect. Also there was quite a drop from the end of the slide to the water surface, that added additional thrill.

Castaway Cay is so beautiful, and I love these flower shots!!!

Thanks! I really loved the flowers, too!

Looks like you had a very successful day fishing! You came out a real "weiner" it appears!!!

I am the super-fisher!! (Not sure whether that makes sense in English, it's what I would say in German! )

 

[Flossbolna]

Looks like an interesting combo, and I love the color.

It was a great drink!

You could have splashed some salt water down his snorkel.

Great idea! I think I need to try that next time!

Or they just think: I'm on vacation, so it's somebody else's problem?

Most likely. I wonder how many towels they lose on every normal port day?

Looks like fun! But I've had the same problem in the past with water up the nose. Not as much fun.

Yes, salt water stings!

Oh, I hate it when that happens. A "heat headache" never goes away easily.

Luckily Michael was feeling better quite quickly after he got out of the sun.

 

[Flossbolna]

The slide looks awesome! Love the flora/fauna pictures!

I am surprised at how well the flower pictures turned out. I am normally not very good at them!

 

[Flossbolna]

So, the questions are:
1) Where was this picture taken?
2) Why is it no longer possible to take this picture today?

I think it is time to finally solve the riddle - since I finally got Katharina's guess today.

I can tell you that the following people have had the right answers:

cmaee (who was the first to answer correctly!)
Poolrat
mrsswat
GoofyFan1515
nodnol

the answers are:

1) at the Yacht Club - it is the light house at the Yacht Club marina and it is taken with the back to the hotel.

2) because today the background of the picture would not be trees, but the Boardwalk which was built at a later point in time than the Beach and Yacht Club.

A lot of you guessed 1) correctly, but only a few got 2) right. Congratulations to the winners!!! I will contact you shortly about your prices!

The reason why Michael and I were kind of amazed by this picture is that it must have been taken before the mid 90s - the Boardwalk opened in 1996. So it was already old before the Wonder came into service. And it seems like they never updated this picture...

 

[Flossbolna]

Michael had told me that he would head up to the pool as he wanted to spend some time in the water there to cool off. But before I would join then, I needed to do something. Getting back on the ship after CC really was the moment where I realized that the cruise was nearly over and that there were a number of things that I wanted to do before I had to leave the ship.

The first thing was to finish my photo trip along Route 66. I had only gotten to the turn where you enter the Cadillac Bar. So I needed to document the rest as well. So directly when I got onto the boat (after sanitizing my hands and getting a nice cold wet towel to refresh me) I headed up to Route 66.

First I took some pictures of the entrance area to Wavebands which I had omitted last time as there were a number of people around:

And this is the journey all the way to the West Coast and its end in Santa Monica:

this is the entrance way to the restrooms:

And this is the end of Route 66:

There at the end  technically just offshore in the Pacific Ocean is a shop with duty free stuff, cigarettes and alcohol.

And there is Diversions which is the sports bar:

Here we had the DVC presentation earlier in the trip. I thought it was a really nice space and they had board games there. I could imagine spending some time there on a longer cruise as it seemed a very cosy space.

Since I was already in the mood to take pictures of everything, I just continued. The next is the floor in an elevator:

Some explanations about flags:

And now I was up on the ship and took some pictures of Castaway Cay from the top deck:

I even tried to do a panorama shoot:

And then it was time to head to the pool and join Michael in the water for a last dip in our beloved adult pool!

Michael wanted to see the last evenings show, I did not. To me it seemed like it would be similar to the first evenings one. While that was nice, I rather wanted to do other things during that time, especially hang out some more in the Outlook Café with my book. I really had not done as much reading as I had wanted to do. So we agreed to meet up there before dinner.

Next: Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

When I headed down to the room, I thought I needed to do some more documenting. I always liked that TV channel that showed a map of the course of the ship. Just like those maps on airplanes it zooms in and out and I really liked this one as it shows the whole route of our cruise:

Then a few more pictures of our room and especially the artwork:

From there I headed up to the shops, I still wanted to get a pin and maybe something else, even though not much had caught my eye on previous visits to the shops.

But then I did find something that I liked. A pajama. And it even came in different sizes! One of the rare occasion that Disney sleepware is not sold under the lie of “One size fits all” – which obviously should read: We are too cheap to offer actual sizes, but since most people don’t mind that they look horrible in their nightdresses, we are not going to be bothered.

(please excuse the wrinkles, I don’t iron my pajamas and this picture was not taken when it was new…)

And since I already had started I ended up with a pin with the logo of the Disney Wonder (which I conveniently can’t find at the moment…) and a magnet:

as well as some more postcards (which I did not mail out to people… Need to get back on the Wonder and bring them to mail them then) and then because I had spent so much money I was offered to spend even more money! They had one of this deals of “If you spent amount x you can buy this for amount y”. The thinkg they offered me was a beach towel for 14.95$. And I really liked the beach towel, so here it is:

Simple, but at least not cheesy like most of the others they were offering there.

I was in the shops during the time the show was going on and the other half of the ship was eating dinner and they were really quiet. I met some very helpful and nice castmembers there with whom I chatted a little bit. I was afraid that a last minute shopping experience would be rather stressful, but it was the opposite of that!

After brining the shopping to the room I headed up to the Outlook Café. I ordered a glass of white wine and got myself some of the snacks:

I truly soaked up the atmosphere of my last few hours on the ship to the fullest. And I was so happy that after I got off the ship I could look forward to my stay at AKL, my favourite WDW hotel. And that I still had not reached the half way point of my vacation!

It took Michael quite some time to come up to the café after his show and I was wondering, but then I thought he might be off doing some exploring on his own as well. It turned out that he had done just that – but in a different way than I would have thought. He ended up getting a hot dog from the fast food stand at the main pool – not because he needed a snack, but because he really likes the DCL hot dogs and had not had the chance to have one so far. When he finally appeared and admitted to this, I made a mental note that on my next cruise I need to try the hot dogs!! And maybe all the other counter service food available as well – there just wasn’t enough time for everything in a 5 night cruise!

Next: Till We Meet Again

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I think it is time to finally solve the riddle - since I finally got Katharina's guess today.

the answers are:

1) at the Yacht Club - it is the light house at the Yacht Club marina and it is taken with the back to the hotel.

2) because today the background of the picture would not be trees, but the Boardwalk which was built at a later point in time than the Beach and Yacht Club.

A lot of you guessed 1) correctly, but only a few got 2) right.

Well, dagnabbit. I knew I was missing something.

And there is Diversions which is the sports bar:

I stopped in here one evening to watch a football game. But there were too many Dallas Cowboys fans around, so I couldn't stay.

And now I was up on the ship and took some pictures of Castaway Cay from the top deck:

As beautiful as ever!

When I headed down to the room, I thought I needed to do some more documenting. I always liked that TV channel that showed a map of the course of the ship. Just like those maps on airplanes it zooms in and out and I really liked this one as it shows the whole route of our cruise:

I love these maps. It's always fascinating to see where you've been.

But then I did find something that I liked. A pajama. And it even came in different sizes! One of the rare occasion that Disney sleepware is not sold under the lie of “One size fits all” – which obviously should read: We are too cheap to offer actual sizes, but since most people don’t mind that they look horrible in their nightdresses, we are not going to be bothered.

It's funny because it's true!

The thinkg they offered me was a beach towel for 14.95$. And I really liked the beach towel, so here it is:

Simple, but at least not cheesy like most of the others they were offering there.

Simple and understated. I always thought the DCL logo was pretty classy.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

So glad you were able to finish up the Route 66 tour. I really liked looking at the billboard/poster pictures and remembering things like that from my childhood!

The artwork in your stateroom is so cool! I especially like the pirate one.

Nice jammies!!! But I can't believe you don't iron them.......

And I like the pin!

So cool the app you can use to see where you are in relation to your cruise........at least until there is a majority of your path behind you and only a very small portion still remaining.

 

[dekkerdisneydreamer]

It's a little sad that this is your last night! I don't know if it felt this way to you or Michael, but it seems to have gone by rather quickly!

I always get sucked in to the buy x receive y deals, I'm a bargain shopper!!

I love a good comfortable pair of PJ's!

Cannot wait to see the first day at AKL, I love staying there!!

 

[englishrose47]

Lovedthe pix of the end of Route 66 and your purchases !! Sounds like you accomplished a lot while Michael watched the show !! We didn'ttry the fast foods places on the Dream either !! Just sooo much else to do!!!

 

[eandesmom]

Love your last photo tour of the route 66 area

But then I did find something that I liked. A pajama. And it even came in different sizes! One of the rare occasion that Disney sleepware is not sold under the lie of “One size fits all” – which obviously should read: We are too cheap to offer actual sizes, but since most people don’t mind that they look horrible in their nightdresses, we are not going to be bothered.

as well as some more postcards (which I did not mail out to people… Need to get back on the Wonder and bring them to mail them then) and then because I had spent so much money I was offered to spend even more money! They had one of this deals of “If you spent amount x you can buy this for amount y”. The thinkg they offered me was a beach towel for 14.95$. And I really liked the beach towel, so here it is:

This is so my kind of last evening! wandering around, documenting, shopping...

LOVE the PJ's and the towel. I would absolutely get those too! I do not like nightdresses for some of that very reason, sorry but one size does not fit most. And I just like PJ's better anyway.

After brining the shopping to the room I headed up to the Outlook Café. I ordered a glass of white wine and got myself some of the snacks:

What a lovely lovely respite

It took Michael quite some time to come up to the café after his show and I was wondering, but then I thought he might be off doing some exploring on his own as well. It turned out that he had done just that – but in a different way than I would have thought. He ended up getting a hot dog from the fast food stand at the main pool – not because he needed a snack, but because he really likes the DCL hot dogs and had not had the chance to have one so far. When he finally appeared and admitted to this, I made a mental note that on my next cruise I need to try the hot dogs!! And maybe all the other counter service food available as well – there just wasn’t enough time for everything in a 5 night cruise!

That's pretty funny about the hot dog, I wonder if they really taste different

 

[nodnol]

Have fun!

That's a great reason to post! Have fun!!!

Sorry, I meant to try to get one up, but there was just no time! But I promise lots to read when you come back! Enjoy DLP and sprinkle lits of pixie dust on your DH, we want him to come back there in the future!!

Thank you guys! We had a wonderful trip. And .... mission accomplished! My husband told me over breakfast today that he spent yesterday's lunch hour reading about BTMR and Phantom Manor in the different parks... He still refuses to say he's a fan, but I think the facts speak for themselves!

 

[nodnol]

Palo Brunch looks really delicious! I like it that you're not rushed there, enjoying your meal and can even get something "salty" after desert - as you like to do...

Thank you for taking us on your walk burning off the calories, your pictures really give the impression that you were alone on the ship!

I like the linen napkins at the bar - very nice touch!!!

I loce castaway cay - what a great beach! And umbrellas for free! But why on earth didn't you try the apple and cinamon spices bread - it looks much better than the banana bread.

And what's the difference between a castaway hot dog and a shi hot dog?