Our Magical "Mental Health" Western Cruise, March 8-15, 2008

[disneyfaninaz]

Love your report and I hope all is going well with your health. I'm in the middle of dealing with the same issues, I had a fibregenoma removed last Friday that luckily is bengin, there is a long history of Breast Cancer on my Biological mother's side and she was 37 when diagnosed and lost the battle at 42. Next week I go to have the BRCA testing done to see if I possibly carry the gene.

My thoughts and Prayers are with you for a speedy recovery.

Thank you! I hope your tests come out well. Good luck!

 

[Keggy]

Thank you so much for your trip report! Can't wait to read the rest!

Kelly

 

[JDBlair]

Hi Neighbor!
I totally love reading your report!! I'm so excited you got to go on the cruise. After reading about your day at Animal Kingdom, I made the suggestion to DH we do the same thing next year. He told me I wouldn't be satisfied with just one park, we should just do them all! Don't know if that's going to happen, I'd be happy with just Animal Kingdom - start small!

Keep the report coming! I hope you are feeling well and having good days!!
Your Friendly Chandler Neighbor!!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Thank you so much for your trip report! Can't wait to read the rest!

Kelly

Thanks! I'm glad your enjoying it.

Hi Neighbor!
I totally love reading your report!! I'm so excited you got to go on the cruise. After reading about your day at Animal Kingdom, I made the suggestion to DH we do the same thing next year. He told me I wouldn't be satisfied with just one park, we should just do them all! Don't know if that's going to happen, I'd be happy with just Animal Kingdom - start small!

Keep the report coming! I hope you are feeling well and having good days!!
Your Friendly Chandler Neighbor!!

Thanks for reading! Fortunately, I have more good days than bad. My DH is the same way. Next time he wants to spend more time at the parks before a shorter cruise. Go figure.

 

[mkmommy]

Thank you!



I took about 1300 pictures and my DH took 256. And, there are still things I wish I had pictures of that I missed. Oh well, next time!

I wish I had taken that many. I kept forgetting to ask to see DD's autograph book, I assume you made it? Wish I had a creative side .

Lisa

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Today we arrived in Cozumel. Ashore was approximately 9:45 AM. While the skies looked threatening, it was actually warm and we had no rain. We headed to Topsiders for breakfast and then watched from deck 10 as we approached Cozumel.

There were 6 other cruise ships in port that day,

including this humongous Royal Caribbean ship, “Navigator of the Seas.” I had seen her sister ship featured on The Travel Channel, but I had no idea it was this big! It was berthed on the far end of the island.

We were docking next to the Carnival ship. However, you couldn’t see the dock and my DH and DNH were convinced that we were tendering. I knew that the Magic docked in Cozumel and they were surprised as we started backing up and turning parallel with the Carnival ship to dock. DD and I hightailed it down to our verandah (port side) to watch the docking. Our neighbor (retiredkid) had the same idea. It was pretty cool being next to the other ship. Captain Tom was on the “Alternative” bridge to dock her and blew the Magic’s horn during the process. People on the Carnival ship cheered. I love that horn! A lot of other passengers were out on their verandah watching the operation as well.

After we docked, we relaxed in our stateroom and got ready to meet at Diversions at 10:45 AM for our Dolphin Discovery excursion. My DD was really looking forward to this as she loves dolphins. She says she wants to train them when she grows up, we'll see. We arrived at Diversions, got towels, turned in our disclaimer form, got our Minnie Mouse stickers, put on our wrist bands and were led off of the ship. We were then led across the pier, up an escalator, through a mall, down some stairs and finally to some waiting taxis. Don’t let the threatening clouds fool you.

After we were grouped up, we were on our way. We shared our taxi with a family of 4 from Canada. They were very nice and our DD struck up a conversation with the dad. Anyway, about 15 minutes later we were finally at Chankanaab. The park was very nice and clean. I understand that it was recently refurbished after a hurricane a few years back. They did a great job fixing it up.

Our leader, Emilio, told us what was going to happen and we were broken down in groups of 10 or so. We then got complimentary lockers, put our biodegradable sunscreen on, received our life vests and got ready to get in with the dolphins. Our dolphin was Vali. She was 4 years old and sweet as can be.

We learned about her anatomy and were able to pet her as she swam by on her stomach and then back. Our trainer instructed us on how to get a kiss and shake her fins, and then he would send her out to do jumps. Each person got a turn kissing her nose and shaking her fins. We also got to feed her, play splash and sing with her before it was time to get out. Vali even did an impersonation of a shark, which was very impressive.

It was such an awesome exerience interacting with this sweet, intelligent creature. Vali always looked like she was smiling. Afterwards, we were led as a group into a small room where we watched our video and then led to the gift shop to view our photos. They don’t waste any opportunity to sell you anything. Of course, we bought the package. We then walked around the park and had lunch at the beachside restaurant. We had a magnificent view of the beautiful blue ocean.

They also had a botanical garden that we walked around and saw some iguanas.

My DD then wanted to swim in their pool, so we let her swim for a while before we headed out. The weather was very nice, but was getting a little warm. Emilio got a taxi back to the port for us where we did some brief shopping and headed back on board the ship.

Next: Pirate Night

 

[misslissa]

Omigosh... thank you so much for posting those photos. We'll be doing Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab in a little over a month. Your pictures took my breath away. I couldn't believe the size of it! Actually, all your photos were amazing... I can't believe we'll be doing that!!!!!!!

 

[frdeb1999]

Your pics and report are wonderful! Sounds like you had a wonderful time!

 

[retiredkid]

Omigosh, Wendy....I could cut and paste for my report
(As Wendy mentioned, we actually were in the next cabin)
We didn't do any excursions, though. Our pics are very similar to yours.
But your are fabulous!! Even to staying at POFQ, which we did AFTER the cruise. LOL We are just about to get on the ship in my next installment (tonite, hopefully)
I loved your dolphin pics. Like you said, what beautiful, intelligent creatures. I really do wish we had done some excursions. NEXT time, right? Glad you got a sunset picture. I never got a single one. We always seemed to be at dinner. I did get some neat sunrise shots, though. And I never even noticed the alternate bridge. DUH!

Sorry your DD didn't seem to enjoy the club all that much.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Omigosh... thank you so much for posting those photos. We'll be doing Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab in a little over a month. Your pictures took my breath away. I couldn't believe the size of it! Actually, all your photos were amazing... I can't believe we'll be doing that!!!!!!!

Thank you. Chankanaab was beautiful and we didn't even see half of it. You will love it.

Your pics and report are wonderful! Sounds like you had a wonderful time!

Thanks and we did have a wonderful time.

Omigosh, Wendy....I could cut and paste for my report
(As Wendy mentioned, we actually were in the next cabin)
We didn't do any excursions, though. Our pics are very similar to yours.
But your are fabulous!! Even to staying at POFQ, which we did AFTER the cruise. LOL We are just about to get on the ship in my next installment (tonite, hopefully)
I loved your dolphin pics. Like you said, what beautiful, intelligent creatures. I really do wish we had done some excursions. NEXT time, right? Glad you got a sunset picture. I never got a single one. We always seemed to be at dinner. I did get some neat sunrise shots, though. And I never even noticed the alternate bridge. DUH!

Sorry your DD didn't seem to enjoy the club all that much.

Welcome to my TR. Thanks for reading. I can't wait to read more of yours. As previously mentioned, its funny how people on the same cruise can have different experiences, but still have the same pictures!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We got back on board in time to shower and get ready for dinner at Animator’s Palate for Pirate Night. I wanted to get ready early and get my picture with Captain Jack at 5:15 PM. The Navigator was great in listing when characters would be available for photos. There was already a small line when I got there at 5:00 PM.

I got my picture and then DD and I waited in line to get a picture with Pirate Mickey. We ran into mkmommy and her daughters as they were in line for Pirate Chip & Dale, so we waited in line with them and got a picture with all 3 girls. They brought a mariachi band on board to play that evening. Not sure if mariachi music and pirates go together, but they were very good. Terk joined in on the fun as well.

We then arranged to meet after dinner at 7:30 PM for another play date. Dinner was a lot of fun. We all got pirate bandanas and Ollie tied them on our heads. DH and I had Rusty Anchors for our cocktails. It was a very good rum drink, indeed! Arrrgh!!! At the end of our dinner, all the servers got all the kids to join in a conga line around the restaurant. It was a lot of fun. Our tablemate even got my usually shy DD to join in.

Our assistant server May, was awesome. After dinner, we met up with mkmommy in our usual location. While the girls played, I caught a glimpse of Michael Harrison’s ventriloquist show at the Rockin’ Bar D, he was very amusing and talented. I wish I had made more of an effort to catch these family cabaret shows. Afterwards, we invited mkmommy and her daughters to go watch the premier of “College Road Trip” at 8:15 PM in the Walt Disney Theater. As usual, I didn’t’ have anything to drink. Mkmommy was very kind to run up to Deck 9 and get drinks for all of us. It was an entertaining movie, here’s a spoiler alert: (The pig steals the show). Afterwards, we went immediately up on deck to catch up with my DH and to watch the pirate party. We found DNH and DNDD(15) amidst the crowd and invited them to join us.

It was a lot of fun watching the crew members and characters dance. Then it was time for Pirate Mickey to save the day and swing down from the stacks to start the fireworks.

Although it was very windy, the show went on as scheduled and was totally awesome. Of course, nobody puts on a fireworks show like Disney, IMO. Afterwards, we raided the Pirate Dessert Buffet and settled back to watch the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl on Ariel Vision. Ahhhh!

I love the scene when Captain Jack first arrives in Port Royal. It is so classic and I really wanted to see it on the Magic on the big screen.

By this time it was after 11:00 PM so we headed down to our stateroom, moved our clocks ahead 1 hour and went to bed. Our towel animal was a monkey. DD especially liked that one.

Next: Another sea day

 

[retiredkid]

Awesome update, Wendy. the shot of you and Capt Jack!! We never saw him once. He looks pretty close, actually.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Another sea day, I can’t believe where the time has gone. It just seems like we got on the ship and now we’re 2 days away from getting off. Oh well, can’t contemplate that now, there are still many things to do. First thing we did was go down to breakfast at Lumiere’s at about 9:00 AM. The dinining room wasn’t very full at all and breakfast was very good. Julian, from France, was the best assistant server. I merely asked my DD if she wanted a donut with her breakfast, voila, there was Julian with a tray of danishes. DD wanted whipped cream on her hot chocolate, voila, a heap of real whipped cream appeared on her hot chocolate. There is nothing these servers won’t do. Anyway, after breakfast we ran into our neighbors in the atrium and DH and DNH decided to attend the Tequila/Margarita tasting at 2:00 PM in Diversions. We also had an appointment with the medical clinic that morning. Our DD has a lactose intolerance problem and when she has too much dairy, she will get sick. Well, she had one too many Mickey Bars for dessert on Tuesday night and was sick in our cabin. Fortunately, she made it to the bathroom, but we had to call housekeeping to clean up. We had received a call from the Medical Center on Wednesday to have us bring her down, at no charge, to get her cleared. It was a very painless process and one that I appreciated very much. Since she had no other symptoms, and it was a one time event, she was cleared to attend Kid’s Club. We then went through Shutters and added to our package then walked around the ship and took pictures in the portholes.

We had stopped back in our room when I heard the cue for announcements from Christiaan. Since DD was already watching a Disney movie on TV, I opened our stateroom door to listen from the hall. As I was listening, Sammy, the Deck 7 Manager, walked by. He had stopped by the room earlier in the week, but we were getting ready to head out to Palo. Anyway, I stopped him and introduced myself. He said he was aware of my health situation and had picked my DD for a “Magical Moment.” He wanted to know if DD was interested in learning how to make towel animals. You bet she did! Sammy went off to find Rodolfo, our cabin steward. I just want to take a moment and tell you how wonderful Rodolfo was during the entire week. Not only did he keep our cabin straightened and neat, made and turned down our beds every day and made wonderful towel animals; there wasn’t a day that went by that we didn’t run into him in the hallways where he didn’t ask us how our day was or what we were doing and he always called DD, “Princess”, which she got quite accustomed to.

Anyway, Sammy came back (Rodolfo had to take part in an emergency drill for the crew) with a bunch of towels and spent about 20 minutes with DD teaching her how to make a monkey, a dinosaur and a puppy.

He also made a towel angel for her. It was very magical! Afterwards, While DH and DD rested in the room; I headed to the Disney Behind The Scene Backstage Tour. It was very interesting listening to the Q&A with the performers and seeing all of the costumes up close. It was also really interesting to see how hard these stagehands work changing out scenes and props for each of the shows. They even opened up the back curtain so you could see where everything was stored for each show produced on the ship. It was simply amazing how they make magic happen.

After the tour, I headed back to the room and we headed to Topsiders for lunch (DD loved the kid’s buffet). After lunch, DD and I went to see Disney Dreams and DH headed to his Tequila/Margarita tasting. This was an awesome show and worth all the awards it has received.

After the show, I took DD back to the room. DH came back from his tasting with an empty tequila bottle claiming to have had a wonderful time. No, they didn’t drink the entire bottle, but he likes to collect those kinds of things. However, he did end up buying a bottle of Patron XO tequila on board. We then proceeded to get dressed for dinner. It was semi-formal night. While DH and DD were finishing getting dressed, I went to play the Final Jackpot Bingo in the Walt Disney Theater. The lure of big money ($3000) was too much to pass up. Again, I didn’t win anything, but it was a lot of fun. Meanwhile, DH dropped DD off at the Rockin Bar D to get ready for the “Celebrate the Journey” show where all the kids graduate from Disney Sea University. By the way, they did ask for her medical clearance before she could participate. DH joined me in the theater and we waited for the graduation ceremony.

There were a lot of kids on board this week. Anyway, I would say 90% of them were on stage. All the kids got a t-shirt and very cute Mickey Ear Mortar Boards to wear and keep. DD filed in with her BFF. They showed a photo montage of things they had done during the week and Mickey and Minnie came out to sing their graduation song. It was all very cute. After that it was time for dinner at Parrot Cay. One of the drinks offered on the menu was a Melon Ball. I used to love these in college, so I ordered one. It was the only “food’ picture I took all week, but it was so pretty,

and very tasty. After dinner, DD and I went down to meet mkmommy and DD’s new BFF at the portholes on Beat Street for their regularly scheduled appointment. Anyway, the girls played for awhile. Mkmommy was kind enough to watch them for a bit so DH and I could get a formal portrait taken in the atrium. Afterwards, we picked up DD and went back to the room and began the momentous task of packing most of our stuff so I wouldn’t have to do it at the last minute. Then it was off to bed. Our towel animal for the night was an alligator.

Next: Castaway Cay – aka Paradise!

 

[limati]

Wendy,
Your trip report is great and I love your pictures. We were on right after you for the Eastern.

What kind of camera do you use. Your pictures are great!

Thanks,
Lisa

 

[ibouncetoo]

Wendy, just saw a post from you on the regular forum and thought "Shouldn't she be back from her cruise?" So, I popped right over here and low and behold, a trip report!

Back to page one to start it......if I don't get my taxes done today....it's all YOUR fault!

 

[retiredkid]

Wendy, I can't remember what I was doing, but I missed the Behind the Scene tour. Lorne did it and found it interesting. Oh well, another thing on my 'must do' list. How cute that DD got to do the towel animals.
Now see if she can fold towels into nice neat piles when she gets home LOL!!

 

[dvanhazel]

Still loving your TR! It is making me realize just how fast this trip is going to go...still sounds like it was a fabulous trip! Keep it coming!
Signed: your other neighbor in Chandler...looks like there are a couple of us.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Wendy,
Your trip report is great and I love your pictures. We were on right after you for the Eastern.

What kind of camera do you use. Your pictures are great!

Thanks,
Lisa

Thank you! I have a new Olympus 560UZ. It was a lot of fun using it.

Wendy, just saw a post from you on the regular forum and thought "Shouldn't she be back from her cruise?" So, I popped right over here and low and behold, a trip report!

Back to page one to start it......if I don't get my taxes done today....it's all YOUR fault!

Thanks! Hope you enjoy! I'm sure Uncle Sam will understand about your taxes!

Wendy, I can't remember what I was doing, but I missed the Behind the Scene tour. Lorne did it and found it interesting. Oh well, another thing on my 'must do' list. How cute that DD got to do the towel animals.
Now see if she can fold towels into nice neat piles when she gets home LOL!!

If only I could get her that interested in towels at home! I remember seeing Lorne in the audience. It was fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes. They do a phenomenal job!

Still loving your TR! It is making me realize just how fast this trip is going to go...still sounds like it was a fabulous trip! Keep it coming!
Signed: your other neighbor in Chandler...looks like there are a couple of us.

Thanks! You know what they say about time flying when you're having fun! Yes, there appear to be quite a few fellow Zonies on the boards. Hope you have as much fun planning your cruise as I had planning ours.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Finally the day that we had been waiting for the most had arrived. Castaway Cay! I woke up right before sunrise, when out on my verandah and caught this sight.

I decided then and there that this opportunity could not be wasted. I got dressed, grabbed my camera and went up to deck 10 to watch the most amazing sunrise come up over the Castaway Cay. The sun was rising directly over it. It was a breathtaking sight and I half expected to see Mickey Ears on the sun as it rose over the horizon. It was truly a vision to behold and worth getting up for. Once again, a moment that I was truly thankful that I had the opportunity to experience. Please indulge me while I share this with you.

Ahh, wasn’t that beautiful? Afterwards, I went back down to the room. DH was still in bed and DD was still sleeping so we thought it best to let her rest. Meanwhile, DH got up and went to get breakfast at Topsiders while I watched Christiaan give his disembarkation instructions on the TV. A very amusing effort, indeed. After we got DD up, we all went up to Topsiders and sat on deck 9 aft to watch us dock at Castaway Cay.

It was wonderful. It was a simply gorgeous day with plenty of sun and a little breeze, and the perfect temperature. After breakfast we went back to our room to watch the crew unload supplies from the Magic before they let us off. That alone was quite a show as all the equipment was put out of sight before we disembarked.

We got the clearance to go ashore, and so we did. We were off the ship by 9:30 AM. Donald and Daisy came off right behind us.

We stopped to get our photo taken in front of the ship and I got my picture taken with Capt. Jack (Again??, as my DD would whine) in front of The Flying Dutchman. We also ran into Pluto and Minnie.

We found a great place on the family beach next to some hammocks, under an umbrella and some trees, close to Cookies and more importantly, the Conched Out Bar. Plenty of shade for the day. DH and DD headed straight for the water while I took pictures.

The water was a little cool, but you got used to it pretty quickly. We found our Dneighbors further up the beach while DNH went parasailing. He had a blast. Anyway, we had scheduled the Stingray Adventure for 11:00 AM. It was very hard getting DD away from the beach to go feed stingrays, but she came.

Normally, my DD loves sting rays and will beg to pet them when we go to the zoo or Sea World. She did not, however, like this experience because of the rocky beach and the fact that fish and sting rays were swimming around her. Oh well, I on the other had lots of fun feeding the stingrays and getting to know their names. One of them was even pregnant. I even got a couple of stingray kisses. They have pretty powerful suction for having such a small mouth.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I opted not to go snorkeling with them so we headed back to the family beach. DH and DD went back into the water and I ordered a Bahama Mama and relaxed on a lounge chair. Ahh, heaven!! It was just I needed after my adventure. Then it was time to meet up with mkmommy for lunch at Cookies. We had yummy hamburgers and bbq ribs. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream is delicious, by the way. The girls were totally inseparable for the rest of the time on the island. They swam and played all afternoon together. While the girls swam, DH and I enjoyed 2 for 1 Bahama Mamas (they were so yummy!) and my DH doubly enjoyed the hammocks. We also both managed to do some shopping and mail some postcards. I never saw such sad faces before when it was time to say goodbye. We gathered our belongings and headed back to the ship shortly before 4:00 PM, taking yet more pictures along the way. It was a wonderful way to end our magical vacation.