These are the reports I sent home to my family. I will be editing them to add more pertinent details. In the meantime, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
To make it a little easier to understand, the people that I am talking about are my DH - Tony, DS - Zach (10), DD - Marissa (7).
Saturday, May 19th
Tony and I are writing to you from the "Internet Cafe" from the Disney Magic Cruise Ship. Aunt Laurel said that she would pay for the unlimited email package if we would keep her posted....so we are.
We flew in to Orlando yesterday. We stayed at the Hyatt Hotel which is right in the airport. It was a nice hotel. We had a verranda/balcony. We could go out onto it and it opened out into the main lobby of the airport. It is a nice airport. There are several restaurants and stores. It is like being at a mall.
This morning we hopped on the Disney bus which brought us to Port Canaveral - adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center. We could see the huge ship as we approached. Little kids were screaming, "There it is...I see it". Marissa looked at me and said, "Gee, they must really be excited". Our kids were just too darn cool to start screaming. However, Tony and I aren't cool so
we had no inhibitions when it came to screaming.
As we waited in line for them to open the doors and let us board we spoke with a couple that are "Disney Vacation Club" Members. They said it has been great and in the long run has saved them a lot of money on vacations. Tonight we met with a sales person for the Disney Vacation Club (DVC). It sounds like a pretty good idea. It is a time-share type of a deal. I guess we will look into it. If you have any sage advice let us know.
From the moment we stepped on board it has been a whirlwind of activity. First there was lunch buffet. We sat by a window that overlooked the water. Then off to sign up for the Adult-only restaurant (Palo), and then to the spa to make reservations for the "Surial Bath", which is a mud bath for couples (wink wink).
We decided to check out our room. It was small, but that is what we were expecting. We met our room steward, Dillan from St. Vincent - "No worries mahn". We received our luggage right away. They had told us that it may take until 6:00 to receive it. The kids couldn't wait to get swimming. Tony took them swimming while I filled out the paper work to get them into the clubs for kids.
There are three pools. There is a kid pool that has a Mickey shaped center. There is a winding slide that goes into it. There is a family pool that is just your basic rectangular pool. It is built so that they can put a hard cover over it and use it as a floor. Then the third pool is for adults only.
Everywhere you look there is food. YIPPEE! We had pizza and fruit and ice cream just for our after lunch snack.
The life boat drill was a drag. It was so yucky that it was funny. The life jackets were huge. Our kids, of course, kept worrying that we would be late for the drill and get in trouble. We had to line up along the side of the ship. We were sweating and kids were crying. The life jackets were choking the kids and making them hot and making them whine and making me nuts.
We had a big party when the ship set sail. There was a band playing in the middle of the ship. Everyone was dancing and blowing bubbles. The horns on the boat play "When you wish upon a star". We went to the Aft section of the ship (also called the "Butt" by our family). We sat and watched as we sailed out of the port. The breeze was blowing through our hair (those of us that have hair). The sun was getting low and was shining of the water. There were boats that were following us and waving. We were having a great time. Even the kids enjoyed just sitting there.
Marissa asked what time it was every five minutes. She was so excited to get into her club. After the kids went to their clubs for a while we went to dinner. We had dinner in the "Parrot Cay". It was a Caribbean type place. They had a band playing, and a guest appearance from Captain Hook. The waiters really take care of you. They brought us the food we ordered plus other stuff that they thought we would like and should try. Marissa excliamed, "This IS the happiest place on earth!"
Zach could not contain himself any longer, he was done being with us and had to run off to his club. He is old enough that he can just check himself in and out of his club. We were astonished that he would just go without us. Our little boy is growing up.
We haven't really been sea sick. It was kind of weird at first. We took some meds and we seem to be okay. At dinner we felt the boat rocking a little.
We are going to go get the kids from their clubs. It is 11:05.
Signing off from the Disney Magic......
Tony and Kathy
Monday, May 21st
Hi all,
The last 2 days we have been at sea. It has been really difficult. Yesterday we ate and laid out and ate and played and ate. We slept for a few hours, then we got up and did it again today. Pretty rough, dont you think?
Some of the highlights....
At dinner we have great waiters-we have the same waiters the whole trip regardless of the restaurant we eat at. We are assigned a certain restaurant each night. They recommend certain dishes that will be good. Usually, I order something else because I am so picky, but Tony gets the exotic things. Tonight he had a weird and scary duck and goat cheese starter thing and a raw salmon appetizer that came in the shape of a rose. Last night he had butternut squash soup and a cold shrimp and lobster spring roll. I had a salad. Those are just some of the weird things. There are other delicious things for those of us with food phobias.
Last night there was a huge dessert buffet from 11:30 pm to 1:00. There were over 40 different desserts. People came in with their cameras and cam-corders just to show how glorious it was. Tonight we couldn't decide which dessert we wanted after dinner so the waiter brought us one of each so we could decide.
For entertainment there are different shows in the big Disney Theater. Last night was a theatrical Magic show called "C'est Magique". It was tres magnifique! Tonight was "Hercules the Muse-ical". The kids loved it. In the musical Hades told some jokes. Here are some of the jokes we remember: [IF YOU REMEMBER ANY LET ME KNOW THEY WERE GOOD CLEAN FUNNY JOKES]
Q: Why did the mushroom go to the party
A: He was a Fungi (fun guy)
Q: What is the difference between broccoli and boogers?
A: Kids won't eat broccoli
Q: What did the hot dog say when he crossed the finish line?
A: I'm a WIENER!
Knock Knock
Who's There
Wah
WahWho
(Then he bowed and said "Thank you very much" because we all Wahood for
him.)
We passed St. Thomas tonight. We will be to St. Maarten in the morning.
Last night we had "Gale Force" winds. It made the boat rock a little bit back and forth. It didnt really make us sick, it was actually pretty cool.
Tony has been exercising at the spa (Yuck). I haven't, but I have been taking the stairs most of the time instead of the elevator. Tony and I did go to the spa together today for reasons other than exercise. We did a "Mud Bath" treatment. Now our skin is muddy, but healthy. (just kidding, of course it is washed off). I didnt want to spend the money at the spa, but Tony insisted. It was wonderful and we will do it again next time.
Our cabin steward makes up our room each night while we are at dinner. Last night we came back to our room and he had created 2 swans out of towels. They were sitting on our bed. Tonight when we came back there was a big towel-frog that had chocolate mints for eyes.
There is a piano bar that we have been going to. It is a program called "dueling pianos". There are two pianos on stage and they play together. They take requests. Tony and I like to stump them. Tonight they were doing a Beatles/British band tribute. We asked them to play The Who, but that threw them a little bit. They do a show for the kids and they get the kids to come up to the stage and dance. They get them to do the chicken dance. Zach runs right up there, but Marissa mopes. When she gets up there she just rolls her eyes.
Right now the kids are watching Cartoon network in our stateroom. It is good to know that we spent some hard earned money to ensure that they would get a full experience of cartoon network.
I guess that is all for now. You can try to email me. Make sure you use the kchristensen@email.com address for the trip. I know I got some email today, but after it downloaded it disappeared. So if you sent me an important email, I probably lost it in the Bermuda Triangle (actually, we didn't go through the Bermuda Triangle).
Love to all,
Kathy (and my ghost writer Tony).
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2001
What can I say? Tiijuana - in the tropics! That pretty much sums up St. Maarten. Fun for shopping and bargains, but a little sleazy and a lot of people mobbing you to buy their wares, or their services.
Did you know that St. Maarten is an island that is owned partially by the French and partially by the Dutch. The French side is called St. Martin and is covered with naked people (we skipped that - maybe next time) I guess, technically, it isnt really COVERED with naked people. There are actually some wonderful family beaches I have heard about. The Dutch side is St. Maarten and is covered with ladies saying "Mommy, you want braids in daughter hair?"
We shopped for a while, getting tropical shirts and t-shirts. I just wanted to go back to the ship, but we decided to walk along the beach on the way back to the ferry. The kids fell in love with the beach. There are a million little sea shells to be found. We decided to go back to the ship for lunch and head back to the beach. We were lucky because we bought a pass for $5 each to ride this shuttle (kids free). We could ride back and forth as much as we wanted.
There was a trampoline in the water that was on a giant float. That was pretty cool. Mostly we just swam and collected sea shells and sand in our pants. Marissa stood up out of the water and her swim suit bottom nearly came off because of the weight of all the sand in there. We laughed and laughed.
We hurried back to the ship in time for our guided tour of the bridge. We were docked next to the Royal Caribbean. While we were on our tour the RC left. They blew their horn. Then we watched as the Officer on the bridge blew our horn back to say goodbye. The cool thing about our horn is that it plays to the tune of "When you wish upon a star". They blew it twice.
It was TROPICALifragilisticexpialadocious night. We all dressed in our tropical garb. Dinner was in Animator' Palate. When you walk in the walls are covered in black and white artists' sketches of Disney movie characters. Throughout the dinner the room begins to light up. Then they did dancing around the restaurant. The waiters first went around and got the kids to get up and dance, Zach almost did but wasn't sure he wanted to look like a fool. However, I don't care if I look like a fool so I got up with the kids and we danced around the restaurant.
There was a big party up on deck for the tropical night.
We are having a great time!
Kathy
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2001
Today we went to St. Thomas, which is one of the US Virgin Islands. We had some delightful minutes explaining what virgin meant to the kids.
There were several Disney Cruise arranged excursions that were rather expensive, so we planned our own. I had read a lot of information on the message boards and our family physician actually gave me advice on what to do while at St. Thomas.
We first grabbed an open air taxi, which is really more like a mini-bus. We went into the downtown area to look for a white lace dress for Marissa for her baptism in September. They didn't have what we were looking for so I bought myself some linen tablecloth items.
We then rode to the other side of the island to a little place called Coral World. It is kind of like a mini Sea World. We got there just in time for the shark feeding. Then we all got to pet the tail of the shark. Don't worry....They were small sharks.
They had aquariums full of sea creatures. There were areas with turtles and iguanas. There were also little petting pools. We had the opportunity to touch or hold star fish, conch shells (with the gross little creature still inside), sea urchins and sea cucumbers (the one we held was called the donkey dung sea cucumber - ooooooooH!).
Adjacent to Coral World is a little beach called Coki beach. It was very clean and uncrowded. The sand was finer and softer than at St. Maarten. After lunch we went there for swimming and snorkeling. Zach took to snorkeling like a little fish. He and Tony had a great time looking at all the sea life. Marissa and I did a little bit of snorkeling, but mostly we stayed at the shore and fed little fishies a dog biscuit. They would come right up to us and bite off of the biscuit. We also burried each other in the sand and threw sand at each other. We were laughing our heads off.
On the way back to the ship we shared the cab with 5 of the Disney show performers. They had been at Coki Beach too. They were feeding the fish. Two of the young men were "attacked" by the little fish. One had his finger bitten and one, are you ready for this?, had his nipple nibbled.
When back on the ship Tony and I had reservations at the Adult-only restaurant called "Palo", it is an Italian restaurant. It is on the Aft section of the ship, which has a marvelous view. We had minestrone soup, shrimp, and stuffed portobello mushroom for appetizers. Then our main courses were Veal, Salmon, and Penne pasta (the little tubes) in a spicy marinara sauce. The reason we had three main courses is because we couldn't make up our mind what to order so we ordered three. Dessert was killer! We had a chocolate souffle. They had to start making it as soon as we got to the restaurant. When the waiter brought it to the table he made a whole in the center and filled it with hot chocolate sauce, then covered that in a vanilla bean sauce. As if that weren't enough, we also had tiramisu that had the name "Palo" sprinkled across it in cocoa.
The entertainment for the evening was "Who wants to be a Mousketeer" patterned after "Who wants to be a millionaire". That was good humor.
Zach got to make Flubber in his club. Marissa watched movies with her group. Tony and I went to the "Dueling Piano" bar again. Tonight was a game where they played a top hit from each year in the 80s. We were excited to go, both having had a great deal of time spent in the 80s. We were a little disappointed because it was 80s "Top 40" music. Tony and I were primarily into what was referred to as "New Wave" music in the 80s. We had to endure a lot of John Cougar Mellencamp and REO Speedwagon. I almost barfed, but the musicians and the atmosphere were great.
The best part of the evening was when Tony and I loaded 3 laundry bags up and went in search for laundry facilities. You can't believe all of the people up doing laundry after midnight! So we ended the day by cleaning up our act. From now on I will never throw the wet clothing in with the other dirty clothing. I will hang it to dry first. If I hadnt saved wet clothes I could have just packed everything and cleaned it when I got home.
Goodbye again from paradise,
Tony and Kathy
Friday, May 25th, 2001
Today we woke up and eagerly prepared for our day at Castaway Cay. We had been up late partying at the 70s party, so it was pretty disgusting to wake up at 7:30. We trotted out of our room and headed to breakfast. On our way we spotted our Cabin Steward, Dillan, staring out the window. We knew something was wrong when there was no light shining in through the window. YES! Horror of horrors! The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the ..... just kidding, It was only raining.
We sat out on the covered deck and watched the storm and watched them dock the ship. They delayed letting us off the ship. It had been thundering and lightening and they wanted to make sure it was safe.
When we got on the island the rain let up a little. We rented bikes and rode around the bike trail on the island. Then we found a spot on the beach. It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't cold and raining either so we thought we were safe. Tony and Zach went snorkeling, while Marissa and I went to the barbecue. As Marissa and I sat there she noticed several of the ship's officers in their white uniforms. She started thinking about the captain of the ship. She said, "So...the guy that runs this whole ship is BALD?" I said yes, and she kind of put her head in her hand and said, "very interesting".
While we were at the barbecue it started raining again. The lifeguard made an announcement that if people weren't strong swimmers they should get out. That spooked Zach a little and that was the end of the ocean fun for the day.
I may have mentioned that it is popular to have your hair braided while here. I decided I had better do it. I stood in line in the pouring rain. I had "cornrows" done on the front part of my head and then the braids dangle down the back. Tony just keeps calling me "Bo" and says I'm a perfect '10' (if you don't know what movie this is in reference to you are way younger than I).
The kids were in a little show this afternoon with their clubs. they got a t-shirt that said, "I discovered the Magic".
Tonight we have our last dinner with our servers, Maclean and Tiago. I am telling you a cruise is totally the way to go.
Goodbye. We will be home tomorrow night very very late. Don't call us early on Sunday, and don't expect to see us in church.
Tony & Kathy
To make it a little easier to understand, the people that I am talking about are my DH - Tony, DS - Zach (10), DD - Marissa (7).
Saturday, May 19th
Tony and I are writing to you from the "Internet Cafe" from the Disney Magic Cruise Ship. Aunt Laurel said that she would pay for the unlimited email package if we would keep her posted....so we are.
We flew in to Orlando yesterday. We stayed at the Hyatt Hotel which is right in the airport. It was a nice hotel. We had a verranda/balcony. We could go out onto it and it opened out into the main lobby of the airport. It is a nice airport. There are several restaurants and stores. It is like being at a mall.
This morning we hopped on the Disney bus which brought us to Port Canaveral - adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center. We could see the huge ship as we approached. Little kids were screaming, "There it is...I see it". Marissa looked at me and said, "Gee, they must really be excited". Our kids were just too darn cool to start screaming. However, Tony and I aren't cool so
we had no inhibitions when it came to screaming.
As we waited in line for them to open the doors and let us board we spoke with a couple that are "Disney Vacation Club" Members. They said it has been great and in the long run has saved them a lot of money on vacations. Tonight we met with a sales person for the Disney Vacation Club (DVC). It sounds like a pretty good idea. It is a time-share type of a deal. I guess we will look into it. If you have any sage advice let us know.
From the moment we stepped on board it has been a whirlwind of activity. First there was lunch buffet. We sat by a window that overlooked the water. Then off to sign up for the Adult-only restaurant (Palo), and then to the spa to make reservations for the "Surial Bath", which is a mud bath for couples (wink wink).
We decided to check out our room. It was small, but that is what we were expecting. We met our room steward, Dillan from St. Vincent - "No worries mahn". We received our luggage right away. They had told us that it may take until 6:00 to receive it. The kids couldn't wait to get swimming. Tony took them swimming while I filled out the paper work to get them into the clubs for kids.
There are three pools. There is a kid pool that has a Mickey shaped center. There is a winding slide that goes into it. There is a family pool that is just your basic rectangular pool. It is built so that they can put a hard cover over it and use it as a floor. Then the third pool is for adults only.
Everywhere you look there is food. YIPPEE! We had pizza and fruit and ice cream just for our after lunch snack.
The life boat drill was a drag. It was so yucky that it was funny. The life jackets were huge. Our kids, of course, kept worrying that we would be late for the drill and get in trouble. We had to line up along the side of the ship. We were sweating and kids were crying. The life jackets were choking the kids and making them hot and making them whine and making me nuts.
We had a big party when the ship set sail. There was a band playing in the middle of the ship. Everyone was dancing and blowing bubbles. The horns on the boat play "When you wish upon a star". We went to the Aft section of the ship (also called the "Butt" by our family). We sat and watched as we sailed out of the port. The breeze was blowing through our hair (those of us that have hair). The sun was getting low and was shining of the water. There were boats that were following us and waving. We were having a great time. Even the kids enjoyed just sitting there.
Marissa asked what time it was every five minutes. She was so excited to get into her club. After the kids went to their clubs for a while we went to dinner. We had dinner in the "Parrot Cay". It was a Caribbean type place. They had a band playing, and a guest appearance from Captain Hook. The waiters really take care of you. They brought us the food we ordered plus other stuff that they thought we would like and should try. Marissa excliamed, "This IS the happiest place on earth!"
Zach could not contain himself any longer, he was done being with us and had to run off to his club. He is old enough that he can just check himself in and out of his club. We were astonished that he would just go without us. Our little boy is growing up.
We haven't really been sea sick. It was kind of weird at first. We took some meds and we seem to be okay. At dinner we felt the boat rocking a little.
We are going to go get the kids from their clubs. It is 11:05.
Signing off from the Disney Magic......
Tony and Kathy
Monday, May 21st
Hi all,
The last 2 days we have been at sea. It has been really difficult. Yesterday we ate and laid out and ate and played and ate. We slept for a few hours, then we got up and did it again today. Pretty rough, dont you think?
Some of the highlights....
At dinner we have great waiters-we have the same waiters the whole trip regardless of the restaurant we eat at. We are assigned a certain restaurant each night. They recommend certain dishes that will be good. Usually, I order something else because I am so picky, but Tony gets the exotic things. Tonight he had a weird and scary duck and goat cheese starter thing and a raw salmon appetizer that came in the shape of a rose. Last night he had butternut squash soup and a cold shrimp and lobster spring roll. I had a salad. Those are just some of the weird things. There are other delicious things for those of us with food phobias.
Last night there was a huge dessert buffet from 11:30 pm to 1:00. There were over 40 different desserts. People came in with their cameras and cam-corders just to show how glorious it was. Tonight we couldn't decide which dessert we wanted after dinner so the waiter brought us one of each so we could decide.
For entertainment there are different shows in the big Disney Theater. Last night was a theatrical Magic show called "C'est Magique". It was tres magnifique! Tonight was "Hercules the Muse-ical". The kids loved it. In the musical Hades told some jokes. Here are some of the jokes we remember: [IF YOU REMEMBER ANY LET ME KNOW THEY WERE GOOD CLEAN FUNNY JOKES]
Q: Why did the mushroom go to the party
A: He was a Fungi (fun guy)
Q: What is the difference between broccoli and boogers?
A: Kids won't eat broccoli
Q: What did the hot dog say when he crossed the finish line?
A: I'm a WIENER!
Knock Knock
Who's There
Wah
WahWho
(Then he bowed and said "Thank you very much" because we all Wahood for
him.)
We passed St. Thomas tonight. We will be to St. Maarten in the morning.
Last night we had "Gale Force" winds. It made the boat rock a little bit back and forth. It didnt really make us sick, it was actually pretty cool.
Tony has been exercising at the spa (Yuck). I haven't, but I have been taking the stairs most of the time instead of the elevator. Tony and I did go to the spa together today for reasons other than exercise. We did a "Mud Bath" treatment. Now our skin is muddy, but healthy. (just kidding, of course it is washed off). I didnt want to spend the money at the spa, but Tony insisted. It was wonderful and we will do it again next time.
Our cabin steward makes up our room each night while we are at dinner. Last night we came back to our room and he had created 2 swans out of towels. They were sitting on our bed. Tonight when we came back there was a big towel-frog that had chocolate mints for eyes.
There is a piano bar that we have been going to. It is a program called "dueling pianos". There are two pianos on stage and they play together. They take requests. Tony and I like to stump them. Tonight they were doing a Beatles/British band tribute. We asked them to play The Who, but that threw them a little bit. They do a show for the kids and they get the kids to come up to the stage and dance. They get them to do the chicken dance. Zach runs right up there, but Marissa mopes. When she gets up there she just rolls her eyes.
Right now the kids are watching Cartoon network in our stateroom. It is good to know that we spent some hard earned money to ensure that they would get a full experience of cartoon network.
I guess that is all for now. You can try to email me. Make sure you use the kchristensen@email.com address for the trip. I know I got some email today, but after it downloaded it disappeared. So if you sent me an important email, I probably lost it in the Bermuda Triangle (actually, we didn't go through the Bermuda Triangle).
Love to all,
Kathy (and my ghost writer Tony).
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2001
What can I say? Tiijuana - in the tropics! That pretty much sums up St. Maarten. Fun for shopping and bargains, but a little sleazy and a lot of people mobbing you to buy their wares, or their services.
Did you know that St. Maarten is an island that is owned partially by the French and partially by the Dutch. The French side is called St. Martin and is covered with naked people (we skipped that - maybe next time) I guess, technically, it isnt really COVERED with naked people. There are actually some wonderful family beaches I have heard about. The Dutch side is St. Maarten and is covered with ladies saying "Mommy, you want braids in daughter hair?"
We shopped for a while, getting tropical shirts and t-shirts. I just wanted to go back to the ship, but we decided to walk along the beach on the way back to the ferry. The kids fell in love with the beach. There are a million little sea shells to be found. We decided to go back to the ship for lunch and head back to the beach. We were lucky because we bought a pass for $5 each to ride this shuttle (kids free). We could ride back and forth as much as we wanted.
There was a trampoline in the water that was on a giant float. That was pretty cool. Mostly we just swam and collected sea shells and sand in our pants. Marissa stood up out of the water and her swim suit bottom nearly came off because of the weight of all the sand in there. We laughed and laughed.
We hurried back to the ship in time for our guided tour of the bridge. We were docked next to the Royal Caribbean. While we were on our tour the RC left. They blew their horn. Then we watched as the Officer on the bridge blew our horn back to say goodbye. The cool thing about our horn is that it plays to the tune of "When you wish upon a star". They blew it twice.
It was TROPICALifragilisticexpialadocious night. We all dressed in our tropical garb. Dinner was in Animator' Palate. When you walk in the walls are covered in black and white artists' sketches of Disney movie characters. Throughout the dinner the room begins to light up. Then they did dancing around the restaurant. The waiters first went around and got the kids to get up and dance, Zach almost did but wasn't sure he wanted to look like a fool. However, I don't care if I look like a fool so I got up with the kids and we danced around the restaurant.
There was a big party up on deck for the tropical night.
We are having a great time!
Kathy
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2001
Today we went to St. Thomas, which is one of the US Virgin Islands. We had some delightful minutes explaining what virgin meant to the kids.
There were several Disney Cruise arranged excursions that were rather expensive, so we planned our own. I had read a lot of information on the message boards and our family physician actually gave me advice on what to do while at St. Thomas.
We first grabbed an open air taxi, which is really more like a mini-bus. We went into the downtown area to look for a white lace dress for Marissa for her baptism in September. They didn't have what we were looking for so I bought myself some linen tablecloth items.
We then rode to the other side of the island to a little place called Coral World. It is kind of like a mini Sea World. We got there just in time for the shark feeding. Then we all got to pet the tail of the shark. Don't worry....They were small sharks.
They had aquariums full of sea creatures. There were areas with turtles and iguanas. There were also little petting pools. We had the opportunity to touch or hold star fish, conch shells (with the gross little creature still inside), sea urchins and sea cucumbers (the one we held was called the donkey dung sea cucumber - ooooooooH!).
Adjacent to Coral World is a little beach called Coki beach. It was very clean and uncrowded. The sand was finer and softer than at St. Maarten. After lunch we went there for swimming and snorkeling. Zach took to snorkeling like a little fish. He and Tony had a great time looking at all the sea life. Marissa and I did a little bit of snorkeling, but mostly we stayed at the shore and fed little fishies a dog biscuit. They would come right up to us and bite off of the biscuit. We also burried each other in the sand and threw sand at each other. We were laughing our heads off.
On the way back to the ship we shared the cab with 5 of the Disney show performers. They had been at Coki Beach too. They were feeding the fish. Two of the young men were "attacked" by the little fish. One had his finger bitten and one, are you ready for this?, had his nipple nibbled.
When back on the ship Tony and I had reservations at the Adult-only restaurant called "Palo", it is an Italian restaurant. It is on the Aft section of the ship, which has a marvelous view. We had minestrone soup, shrimp, and stuffed portobello mushroom for appetizers. Then our main courses were Veal, Salmon, and Penne pasta (the little tubes) in a spicy marinara sauce. The reason we had three main courses is because we couldn't make up our mind what to order so we ordered three. Dessert was killer! We had a chocolate souffle. They had to start making it as soon as we got to the restaurant. When the waiter brought it to the table he made a whole in the center and filled it with hot chocolate sauce, then covered that in a vanilla bean sauce. As if that weren't enough, we also had tiramisu that had the name "Palo" sprinkled across it in cocoa.
The entertainment for the evening was "Who wants to be a Mousketeer" patterned after "Who wants to be a millionaire". That was good humor.
Zach got to make Flubber in his club. Marissa watched movies with her group. Tony and I went to the "Dueling Piano" bar again. Tonight was a game where they played a top hit from each year in the 80s. We were excited to go, both having had a great deal of time spent in the 80s. We were a little disappointed because it was 80s "Top 40" music. Tony and I were primarily into what was referred to as "New Wave" music in the 80s. We had to endure a lot of John Cougar Mellencamp and REO Speedwagon. I almost barfed, but the musicians and the atmosphere were great.
The best part of the evening was when Tony and I loaded 3 laundry bags up and went in search for laundry facilities. You can't believe all of the people up doing laundry after midnight! So we ended the day by cleaning up our act. From now on I will never throw the wet clothing in with the other dirty clothing. I will hang it to dry first. If I hadnt saved wet clothes I could have just packed everything and cleaned it when I got home.
Goodbye again from paradise,
Tony and Kathy
Friday, May 25th, 2001
Today we woke up and eagerly prepared for our day at Castaway Cay. We had been up late partying at the 70s party, so it was pretty disgusting to wake up at 7:30. We trotted out of our room and headed to breakfast. On our way we spotted our Cabin Steward, Dillan, staring out the window. We knew something was wrong when there was no light shining in through the window. YES! Horror of horrors! The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the ..... just kidding, It was only raining.
We sat out on the covered deck and watched the storm and watched them dock the ship. They delayed letting us off the ship. It had been thundering and lightening and they wanted to make sure it was safe.
When we got on the island the rain let up a little. We rented bikes and rode around the bike trail on the island. Then we found a spot on the beach. It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't cold and raining either so we thought we were safe. Tony and Zach went snorkeling, while Marissa and I went to the barbecue. As Marissa and I sat there she noticed several of the ship's officers in their white uniforms. She started thinking about the captain of the ship. She said, "So...the guy that runs this whole ship is BALD?" I said yes, and she kind of put her head in her hand and said, "very interesting".
While we were at the barbecue it started raining again. The lifeguard made an announcement that if people weren't strong swimmers they should get out. That spooked Zach a little and that was the end of the ocean fun for the day.
I may have mentioned that it is popular to have your hair braided while here. I decided I had better do it. I stood in line in the pouring rain. I had "cornrows" done on the front part of my head and then the braids dangle down the back. Tony just keeps calling me "Bo" and says I'm a perfect '10' (if you don't know what movie this is in reference to you are way younger than I).
The kids were in a little show this afternoon with their clubs. they got a t-shirt that said, "I discovered the Magic".
Tonight we have our last dinner with our servers, Maclean and Tiago. I am telling you a cruise is totally the way to go.
Goodbye. We will be home tomorrow night very very late. Don't call us early on Sunday, and don't expect to see us in church.
Tony & Kathy
