Magical Double Dip Trip Report (11/11/06)

[Hannosmom]

SO... any guesses as to what this is?

My guess was that it was possibly result of towel animal inbreeding!

Thanks for the laugh, Wendy! And I have no idea what that is.

 

[GrayFal]

Thanks for the laugh, Wendy! And I have no idea what that is.

I am LMAO -

and then I thought - have you SEEN this secret ritual ​

 

[Vanvmom]

I think towel animals breed when they are left in piles on the floor. I mean think about it... the pile of towels does seem to get bigger! Are they related to tribbles?

Seriously, we had 2 cabins, that means 14 towel creations, right? I think I recognized a snake, a dog, a monkey, an animal, and something that reassembled a lobster like being. Everything else... I have NO idea what it was. We took pictures of most of them, and some will show up in the report.

We had friends with swans, a 3 tiered wedding cake, an obvious lobster... this made our "creations" even more amusing. Now I am not being critical, as I myself am very "folding impaired" so I am pretty sure that I could not even create the creatures we had on our beds. I was just pretty amused by them.

 

[Babs417]

Good job on your trip report I cant wait for our trip time is just flying by

 

[woody73]

SO... any guesses as to what this is?

Venus Flytrap?

Woody

 

[Vanvmom]

"Feed me Seymore"

Snake with arms and legs... and a tail.... wait until you see the others.

 

[mom2of2]

We had the same animal in my Mom's room and I asked our attendant what it was........it's a BRONTOSAURUS!

 

[Vanvmom]

okay.... if they say so! Thanks.

Of course, you could have told me it was a sprouting potato monster and I'd believe that too! I'm telling you, I am folding impaired, so I'm willing to believe just about anything you tell me it is!

 

[TiggersPal]

okay.... if they say so! Thanks.

Of course, you could have told me it was a sprouting potato monster and I'd believe that too! I'm telling you, I am folding impaired, so I'm willing to believe just about anything you tell me it is!

You crack me up girl!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

We had the same towel animal on the Aug DD. We, too, were at a total loss as to its identity.

Our stateroom host told us its a dinosaur.

 

[Vanvmom]

The dinosaur concept makes sense. The way I understand it, scientists have changed their minds over the years as to what dinosaurs really looked like. This works well for stateroom hosts! They can play potato head with the towel creations, call them a variety of dinosaurs, and entertain guests! I like it!

 

[Vanvmom]

Cozumel!!! This place looked amazing considering all the hurricane damage it endured last year. Lucky for us, the pier at Punta Langosta has been rebuilt! We were the first ship to dock, but were one of 3 docked at that pier. There was one cruise ship also docked at another pier close by that still had MANY sections roped off as the portion you walk on was still horribly torn apart. Here is a view of the port from Deck 10 as we were docking.

Originally we had no excursions planned for the day, but on Monday we decided to try the Atlantis Submarine excursion through DCL. Considering my slight claustrophobia, this seemed like a thrilling idea! My 2 oldest DSs really wanted to do this, and the gal at the excursion desk said she'd never done it in Cozumel, but had tried it in Nassau and it was the best excursion she'd ever done. SOLD! I wonder if she has some Disney swampland in FL she'd like to sell me too. I booked this excursion right after I'd enjoyed a wonderful brunch in Palo on Monday, so I must have been on a sugar high. By Tuesday night, DH decided he wanted to try it too (he shares none of my non-sense phobias).

Oldest DS took youngest DS to Topsiders for a high energy donut and Mickey Waffle then dropped him off in the Oceaneers Club for the day. We met in Studio Sea and got our Pumba stickers. I'm doing this excursion with my 2 oldest DSs and my DH, so of course there were the obligatory jokes about "why are we following Pumba? I mean what is this guy known for." Yup! That's my guys!

We walk to the end of the pier to get into taxis. Cozumel is the only port in Mexico I've been to where tourists have the right of way. The police there were stopping traffic to let the tourists cross the road in the middle of the street! The taxi takes us the location where we will board water taxis that will take us to the sub. NOTE to those considering this excursion. They take your photo to try to sell to you later, so bring cash or a credit card if you'd like to purchase it. All we brought was money to tip with. My boys start to disagree over who will get to sit in the "window seat" on the water taxi. Okay guys it isn't even a window, it is just the outside edge of the boat- mom solves the problem - I will sit there!

The trip to the dive site starts out pretty uneventful. Nice coast line, beautiful water, wait... beautiful water IN MY FACE! Yes, as the boat speeds along, I get hit with the spray. My shirt looked like I'd been in a rain-shower, and my sunglasses were covered with sea spray. I just laughed It was a beautiful day, and I just found this event particularly funny! One of the tour operators brought me a paper towel - sort of like cleaning up spilt milk with a Kleenex. I found this pretty funny too These guys must have thought I was loco! Who cares, I'm on vacation.

The boat stops and they tell us to look over by the other boat in the water. We get to see the sub surface.

Very cool! The dive went well. We submersed to 109 ft down, and saw all sorts of fish, a turtle, and even a small shark. The dive goes through a protected reef, so they are not allowed to shine lights on the reef (that's why the colors look primarily green and blue). Here are a couple of photos we took.

This excursion was probably the most expensive we've done on a Disney cruise, but it was amazing, and I felt it was worth the money. I have ear problems so I'll never be a scuba diver, and I loved seeing the coral and other sea life.

After the excursion we returned to the ship to get some lunch before we go shopping.

Once onboard, my DSs ditched us to go do fun stuff. DH got his things ready to go snorkeling with one of our cruising friends (Larry), while I got my list to go shopping with Larry's wife and another couple (who speak fluent spanish). We adults get off the ship, and the real adventure begins!

Pat (wife in Spanish speaking couple) negotiates a taxi ride for Larry and DH to a "good snorkeling beach." As I wave good-bye to my husband I wonder... where is Corona Beach, when will he be back, how will he get back, what will I do if he doesn't make it back, will I ever see my husband again??? After pondering this I go shopping! I have to trust that he WILL make it back. After all, we are in port until 9pm. By dark he will have to have made it back, right?!

I buy him a Del Sol shirt (yes, that's how confident I am that he will return)! I also get the kids some $5 shirts, and I've done my shopping. It is now about 4pm, and I head back to the ship to relieve the counselors at the Oceaneers Club of my youngest son (whose been in their care all day). I find my son immersed in a group game on the sports deck - he didn't care in the least how long he'd been there.

We decide to wander the ship for a while. We play shuffle board with the teens on deck 4, we do a lap around deck 4, we get a soda, we take the mid-ship glass elevator... he's living the high life!

Next up... Pirate Night and Captain Jack

 

[woody73]

. . . My boys start to disagree over who will get to sit in the "window seat" on the water taxi. Okay guys it isn't even a window, it is just the outside edge of the boat- mom solves the problem - I will sit there!

Mom rules!

Woody

 

[Vanvmom]

Dinner tonight was in Lumieres. Now isn't that an odd place to walk into dressed as a pirate I liked the new pirate bandanas DCL provided (as well as the fact that not everyone got the same one). Yes, our whole family dressed up. I even managed to add some of my signature color (lime green) to my pirate outfit (and a fellow DISboarder found much amusement in that fact - JACK) BTW... I enjoyed talking to you and your wife!

Dinner was good, but we all wanted to save room for the pirate buffet. After dinner we went up to get photos with Capt. Jack Sparrow. What he may have lacked in "look alike" qualities, he more than made up with in "character likeness." The pictures that Shutters took looked good, but the ones we took ourselves looked very goofy (and if we'd have wanted goofy pictures, we'd have posed with Goofy).

After the photos, the kids went off to watch the show in the Disney Theater, DH went to take a pre-pirate party nap, and I went up on deck to relax. The kids found me on deck 9 as the pirate party was starting. Youngest DS stayed with me and danced along with the cruise staff. The older 2 DS's went to deck 10 for a better view. I'm not sure how their view was better than ours, as we watched Mickey fly right over our heads. The show was so fun, that I didn't even notice that the ship was moving until the firework show started. I enjoyed the show much better this time than I did on our last cruise. I'm not sure if they had music during it last cruise or not, but I didn't remember it.

Having the huge screen really adds to the party as well! That, and no rain (on our last cruise it sprinkled all through the party). At one point youngest DS didn't look like he was having any fun. I told him that if he wasn't enjoying himself, we could go back to the room. All of a sudden he looked like this:

Yes, this photo was from dinner, but we have an almost identical one taken at the pirate party. I swear that 6 year olds can have almost bipolar emotions (bummed to excited in less than 60 seconds) DS > to (me) >

The decorations for the buffet line, especially the melon sculpture were amazing!

The food was good (I like the fajitas). They did run out of turkey legs, and one woman was complaining about it. Please find something important to complain about - did you not just have the opportunity to eat a full meal just hours ago? For that matter, no one I know goes hungry on a cruise - there is food EVERYWHERE, and you have the option of room service as well In hind sight, I think she may have been a WDW regular attendee. After going to WDW and seeing the HUGE number of turkey leg vendors there, I feel it must be a FL thing (and being from CA, and a regular attendee at Disneyland, maybe I just don't get it) But, in case anyone was wondering, I feel I can confidently answer the trivia question about what happens to the rest of the bird when someone just purchases a turkey breast - the legs get sent to Disney! You can tell me I'm wrong, but I probably won't believe you.

After the party, my older DSs stop by to say hi, and are off to see POTC 2 in the Buena Vista Theater. I tell them to stop by the room and see if their dad is there, or to leave him a note. Meanwhile, youngest DS is back to dancing - this time it is the Cha Cha Slide on deck - he didn't even want me with him About 10 minutes later DH shows up. I asked him how he liked the show, and where he watched it from. As you may have guessed... he slept through it. DH > Me > He's bummed he missed it, but the way I heard the story from others in our traveling group, he slept through many wake up attempts. He placed a wake up call and slept through it. Larry (that he snorkeled with) called him, DH spoke to him, but went right back to sleep, and doesn't remember the call. He did not wake up until the boys came storming into the room looking for him. How could anyone sleep through that?! I wasn't shocked. I could tell many stories of his sleep phone conversations over the years of our marriage Each one quite humorous after the fact!

Since DH was now wide awake (and since youngest DS was dying to stay up to take advantage of the fact we get an extra hour tonight) we staked out a prime lounge chair to watch POTC 1 on the large screen on deck. That screen is AMAZING! The movie is great anyway, but very fun to watch on a big screen, under the stars, while dressed as a pirate, in the Caribbean, on a Disney cruise ship! The weather was quite comfortable, and the color on the screen was great (it made the drive-in movie screen at home look a bit pathetic). We watched about 2/3rds of the movie when youngest DS finally starts to fade so we went back to the room and got ready for bed. We did recognize our towel animal tonight.

I saw some other rooms had the same animal but their animal was wearing a bandana and an eye patch. One dad in our travel group thought it was a turkey (since our cruise was so close to Thanksgiving) Our older boys showed up once the other movie was over, and we all went to sleep. After all, our traveling group of 16 has character breakfast the next morning at 8:45 (I've got to wonder who at DCL had the idea to schedule any character breakfasts the morning after pirate night).

 

[woody73]

. . . They did run out of turkey legs, and one woman was complaining about it. Please find something important to complain about - did you not just have the opportunity to eat a full meal just hours ago?

Too funny!

Woody

 

[flymv]

We did the sub as well, DW was a little worried about the close quarters but was distracted by the events outside the sub.

 

[Vanvmom]

I get claustrophobic in shopping malls at Christmas time, so I was very worried about the sub. I just focused on the sights outside the windows and didn't think about how far down we were, or that I was back to back with a stranger.

 

[schwaja3]

Dinner tonight was in Lumieres. Now isn't that an odd place to walk into dressed as a pirate I liked the new pirate bandanas DCL provided (as well as the fact that not everyone got the same one). Yes, our whole family dressed up. I even managed to add some of my signature color (lime green) to my pirate outfit (and a fellow DISboarder found much amusement in that fact - JACK) BTW... I enjoyed talking to you and your wife!

Yes, I did notice you had your green on everytime I saw you. It was really nice speaking with you as well. It seemed like I bumped into you a few times that week.

Jack

 

[TiggersPal]

Yes, I did notice you had your green on everytime I saw you. It was really nice speaking with you as well. It seemed like I bumped into you a few times that week.

Jack

So glad to see you - how are you? All is well since your return from the cruise I hope?

We keep posting on the main thread Double dip 11/11/06 - if you still have it, pop in and say "howdy" won't you?

Good to see you!

 

[schwaja3]

So glad to see you - how are you? All is well since your return from the cruise I hope?

We keep posting on the main thread Double dip 11/11/06 - if you still have it, pop in and say "howdy" won't you?

Good to see you!

Been busy with stuff at home and work since the return. I'll pop on the meet thread and say hi.

Jack