The Twelve Days of Swinter: From Castaway 'Key' to a Partridge in a Palm Tree!

I'm catching up again Loving the lighthouse pics actually all the pics from Nassau are just amazing! The water is so blue!
Your DD and DH pic with the dolphin is so cute and I love love love the underwater dolphin pic.
I also love how your DH took the sun lounger into the water.. Nice!!!
 
I can totally relate to having your DD look older. Now that Sarah has braces, and is , um, developing a little, she seems way too old now!!! She's not even 11 yet! At least she's not tall too! Although with her parents, that's not likely to ever happen!


London and Paris in March are pretty much supposed to have highs in the 50s. Not as warm as I would like, but it's doable to walk around in. We'll plan for layers and rain gear and hope for the best! It will still be warmer than here for the most part!

I do not want to hear about 'developing' at 10 years old! :scared1: :scared1: That is WAY too early. I thought it was more like 13 or 14.... or 35 would be even better. :rolleyes1

Well maybe you will hit Europe during a warm, dry spell. It can happen ya know. We were supposed to have cool, rainy weather for our cruise but the weather was perfect! But even if it is in the 50s, that really isn't too bad. We have a lot of days in the 50s around here in the winter and it's not that cold to me. If the sun is shining, that makes a huge difference. I hope you guys have the best weather ever!!! :thumbsup2

Another great update. The beach pictures are fantastic- it was so beautiful there!
Don't beat yourself up about the conch shells. I don't think you could bring it back into the U.S. anyway. I seem to remember from when we went to Aruba in 2008 that we weren't allowed to bring any shells home. Of course, since you smuggled in a coconut, you may as well have smuggled in a conch too! ;)

Really? I didn't read anything about not bringing shells or sand home and.......... I brought both back! :rolleyes1 Oh well! I even looked it up before we left to see if it was ok, b/c my FE gift was a bunch of sand bottles for Castaway Cay and I didn't find anything saying it was illegal. Maybe they have different rules for different locations? :confused3 IDK, but I guess it's too late to worry about it now! :laughing:

Loving the pictures. We really are thinking of booking again for Dec 2013. Your pictures are making me want it more. My youngest would love the doing the dolphin excurisne. Did you book that thru disney?

Yes we did. It was more expensive to book through Disney than booking direct, but since we had never been out of the US before and knew nothing about the Bahamas, I didn't want to try to get there on my own. It was just much easier and worry free to go through Disney. And I had enough shipboard and Disney Visa credits to pay for it anyway, so it didn't matter.

Great pictures of Blue Lagoon! We certainly didn't spend the amount of time there that you did, we walked around a bit after the dolphins, picked up our photos and caught the ferry back. If we go back next summer I think we will stay and spend more time at their beach! Although we might take our own snacks....
Knowing that you have that lunch waiting for you on the Wonder would make it really hard to pay those prices for a burger and fries!

Definitely take your own snacks! :laughing:

We LOVED the Blue Lagoon beach. Overall, CC is more awesome, no doubt, but I have to say that the water at BL was more clear than it was at CC. Not sure if it was b/c so many people were in the water at CC stirring up the sand or what, but the water at BL was as clear as glass.

Believe me, I have wanted to, but we pretty much have to stay value to be able to go. I actually thought about getting a room for one night at CBR in the middle of the summer trip just to stay there for the one night and let the girls have use of the pool for two days. We love the food court there, too, for getting chicken and vegetables. The downside is not being close to the food court to just run down and get things, which is so easy to do at Pop.

I could still easily do an early morning walk there by just getting a cab, since it is right beside Pop.

Well that's what I meant. I know you guys love to stay at Pop, but you have stayed a night or two at lots of different places and I was just surprised that you hadn't chosen CBR yet. I know the girls would absolutely LOVE the pool area there. But you better go soon. They only allow very young children into the spray area there (which is really cool as you know). My DD is only 7 (although tall) and they wouldn't let her play in there. She was really disappointed.

Your right though, the food court and stuff is not quite as close as it is at Pop, but if you stay in Jamaica, the walk over the bridge is so nice that you probably won't mind. I do hope you can stay there a night or two sometime soon! We like Pop too though and I think a split stay is a really good option.

Right here is where you can find the link to your cruise dates.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2583392


I'm loving all the updates. Beautiful Blue Lagoon, that many of my pictures were lost from.....:rolleyes1
I wondered how much the food was...now I know I won't be eating there ever. :rotfl:
Seeing your pictures does make me rethink about doing that excursion again. It was fun.
I am so sad we didn't get to see a full view of the "woman". :rotfl2:
I know there was more I wantred to say...and I can't remember now. :confused3

I know, I thought of you when I was writing that post and I still feel bad for you loosing your pictures. :sad2:

Definitely bring your own food! Next time I think we will order some non perishable things from room service to take with us when we go. I won't pay those prices again either!

Don't be sad... she is in one of my pictures later on and it is actually decent enough to post. Trust me though... you did NOT want to see the others! :upsidedow
 
I'm catching up again Loving the lighthouse pics actually all the pics from Nassau are just amazing! The water is so blue!
Your DD and DH pic with the dolphin is so cute and I love love love the underwater dolphin pic.
I also love how your DH took the sun lounger into the water.. Nice!!!

Thank you so much! There are some really nice points about the Bahamas. It does have slummy parts, but the good parts are REALLY good!

We have become pros at lounging in the ocean. ;) Every year when we go to one of our NC beaches, we always drag our chairs to the edge of the water and just let the waves lap up onto our legs. It is pure bliss. I have been known to sit there so long, just mesmerized by it that I get fried by the sun and don't even realize it. It is the perfect combo of cool water and warm sun! :cloud9: And it's 28 degrees here right now... :sad2:
 
After lunch we headed back over to the lagoon side so that DD could see about getting into the water play area.

DD thought this colorful picnic table was really neat.

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While we were sitting there, the same guy from the rental booth that had taken our picture earlier came up and started talking to us again. We chatted about life in the Bahamas and life in the U.S. He said he really wanted to become a U.S. citizen someday. His plan was to get one of the single lady tourists to fall in love with him, marry him, and take him back to the U.S. :rotfl: Poor guy! He told us that life in the Bahamas is really hard. Jobs are scarce, and goods are expensive because of all the tourism. He said a gallon of milk there is $9! :scared1:

Anyway, DH told him that the guy on the ferry boat said that the water play area was included with the dolphin encounter excursion. Just as I had suspected, he was wrong. There is an extra charge to go in there, but the guy was so nice that he told DD to go ahead and use it since we had been given the wrong info! That was a nice little dose of pixie dust! :wizard: DD was tickled pink!

They require all kids to wear a life jacket in there.

Climbing wall

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‘Sea’saw

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Obstacle course

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She had a blast! Thank you Mr. rental booth guy! You made my DD very happy!

I sure hope he finds himself a nice American girl someday!

This is the part of the lagoon that’s further down. We never made it down there to check it all out though.

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I tried to get a picture of a school of pretty fish that were hanging around but they were too quick for me. The water was still pretty though.

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You could rent these too. I would have loved to do this if we had more time.

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Our rental guy friend is in this pic.

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It was starting to get late, so we needed to get out of the water and get changed. We had to peel DD off the blow up stuff. She was lovin’ it!

We made our way back down the beach towards the boat dock.

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We stopped into another gift shop. I think they had three of them on the island. We still didn’t buy anything, but I saw this shirt and thought it was pretty funny!

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Raise your hand if you know the answer! :laughing:

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Continued in next post
 

Cat on a hot tin roof… literally!

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He was just strutting around like he owned the place! What a life!

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We browsed around the gift shop while waiting for the photo package that I ordered. The main things I wanted were the DVD and the picture of the three of us with Salvador, but it was actually a better deal to get the entire package than to buy those two items separately, so that’s what I did. It was $97 for the DVD, 3 5x7 pictures, 2 key chains, and 2 magnets. Pricey yes, but it was a once in a lifetime thing and I just had to have that DVD.

Here’s a picture of everything you get.

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DD decided to buy this necklace with her souvenir money.

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I decided to get my usual souvenir, an ornament. I looked at them all for quite a while and finally decided on this one.

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DD also pressed a Blue Lagoon Island penny.

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We were so thirsty at that point. Remember we only had that one shot of lemonade with NO refills :rolleyes: , so I grabbed a bottle of water in the gift shop. Wanna take a guess on the price??? :idea:

$4!!! :faint:

I kid you not!

I gave the cashier a five and she gave half our change back in Bahamian money. At first I was going to ask her to exchange it, but DD asked if we could keep it so she could take it for show and tell at school. After all, we had never seen foreign money before other than the occasional Canadian penny.

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It was now 4:00, time for the last boat of the day to depart, so we said a reluctant goodbye to beautiful Blue Lagoon. :sad1:

DD enjoyed looking at our pictures on the ride back. She also took them to school one day for show and tell and all the kids thought it was really cool.

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These are the celebrity homes that we passed on the way to BL. I sat on the correct side of the boat on the way back so I could see them.

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I think this is Chuck Norris’. :cool2:

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This is Oprah’s.

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There was a sailboat race going on. :boat:

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Continued in next post
 
Isn’t she pretty! :love:

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We were not dropped off in Nassau at the same place where the boat picked us up. We had to walk down a street at the edge of the city and then through the marketplace to get back to the Dream.

A very quick look down the street into the city…

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I really didn’t feel comfortable enough to stop and take photos. The Dolphin Encounters group was moving along really quickly and I didn’t want us to be left behind. It was kind of a shady looking place and I felt safer staying with the group.

There were lots of people hanging around on the sidewalks too that looked like less than stellar citizens. One guy was actually leaning up against a post, smoking a joint in broad daylight! :eek: DH looked over at me and said, “We DEFINITELY are not in Kansas anymore!” I’m not sure if that sort of thing is legal over there or what, but he couldn’t have cared less who saw him.

We proceeded into the marketplace where lots of vendors were set up selling all kinds of touristy things.

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You can tell by the blur that I just snapped these super fast and kept on moving. I did stop long enough to buy one of the much talked about Rum Cakes. We got the Pina Colada flavor.

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It was $9 for this very tiny cake! It is extremely moist though. We all thought it was pretty good.

We didn’t have time to stop for the welcome sign on our way out that morning so we took some pictures here on the way back to the ship.

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When we got to our stateroom, we had these bandanas waiting for us. You know what that means… it was Pirate Night!!! pirate:

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Pirate fun, a fabulous dinner, fireworks at sea, a live show, and more Aquaduck time still to come! Can you believe that? This day started with that gorgeous sunrise on the bow of the ship and it is still going strong! :thumbsup2

Up Next: The third day of Swinter: Part 5 (I told you it was a lonnnng day!)
 
Another great update!! :thumbsup2 What a fabulous day you were having. And all your pics are so great. ::yes:: Your DD looked like she was having a blast on the blow ups! Good thing you didn't have to pay for them. I wonder how much they would have got you for that. :scared1: $9 for a gallon of milk? :eek: WOW!!

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for more! :cool1:
 
RINKY.....thanks sooooo much for sharing this wonderful trip of a lifetime. The pictures are truly amazing, as close to heaven on earth as one will get. Oh and Oprah's house, sigh;)....must be nice!!!!! I'm enjoying everything!!!!:flower3:
 
Another great update!! :thumbsup2 What a fabulous day you were having. And all your pics are so great. ::yes:: Your DD looked like she was having a blast on the blow ups! Good thing you didn't have to pay for them. I wonder how much they would have got you for that. :scared1: $9 for a gallon of milk? :eek: WOW!!

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for more! :cool1:

Thanks Shelly! It really was an extra fabulous day. I have been dreaming about it quite a lot during this cold snap we have had lately.

I'm not sure what the charge is for the blow up stuff. I know they have a beach day excursion where you just pay for use of the beach and water play area. It's a lot cheaper than the dolphin encounter, but I'm not sure what they would charge you to add that to the dolphin encounter. I'm just glad we didn't have to give them any more of our money. They got enough of it between the DE, souvenirs, pictures, food.... :snooty: It was all worth it in the end though!

RINKY.....thanks sooooo much for sharing this wonderful trip of a lifetime. The pictures are truly amazing, as close to heaven on earth as one will get. Oh and Oprah's house, sigh;)....must be nice!!!!! I'm enjoying everything!!!!:flower3:

Oprah does have a pretty nice place there doesn't she? I don't care a thing about celebrities. I figure they put their pants on one leg at a time just like me, but it was neat to see such extravagant oceanfront homes and wonder what it would be like to live somewhere like that.
 
Great update !! The pics are so beautiful. I've fallen in love with the beach. :love:
Thanks for sharing !! :thumbsup2
 
I have been MIA for a while! I was on a family cruise. It was 87 when we left Mexico and 12 when we got back to Boston! But these updates from the Bahamas have warmed me up! Such great photos from Dolphin Encounters! We did the full on swim a couple years back, that place was awesome. I wish we had more time on the island but my friends "insisted" on going to the gym for 2 hours before they would go off the boat (as if the gym won't be there when we got back).
 
I have been MIA for a while! I was on a family cruise. It was 87 when we left Mexico and 12 when we got back to Boston! But these updates from the Bahamas have warmed me up! Such great photos from Dolphin Encounters! We did the full on swim a couple years back, that place was awesome. I wish we had more time on the island but my friends "insisted" on going to the gym for 2 hours before they would go off the boat (as if the gym won't be there when we got back).

Welcome back! That is quite a temp difference though! Yikes!

I'd love to know what you thought about Mexico. Did you do Disney's Western Car. cruise? I've been thinking about doing the Eastern Car., but the Western has more ports. Did you feel safe there? That's my only hangup with going to the Mexican ports. I'd love to hear your opinions.

I really want to do the dolphin swim! That's what I wanted to do this time but I knew DD would freak out in that deep water. I know I made the right choice, but if we go back, I'm doing the swim. Or we may do it at Discovery Cove. Either way, I WILL do it eventually!
 
Great update!!!! I love the water it reminds me of when I went to Indonesia. Can't wait to hear about pirate night.
 
Wow Rinky, your last two updates have been great. What a beautiful place!! I definitely would have stayed to enjoy the beach as well. :goodvibes I'm so glad you all enjoyed yourselves.

That's too bad about the workers in the bar. How nice to be at work and be high. Lovely. :sad2: The prices are crazy!

I think I also would have walked back as fast as I could have to the ship. Foreign countries kind of freak me out to be honest. I guess I'm not very cultured. :laughing:
 
Great update!!!! I love the water it reminds me of when I went to Indonesia. Can't wait to hear about pirate night.

Wow! Indonesia! You are adventurous! I bet that was an awesome trip! I hear they have the best reefs there too, so some really good snorkeling.

Wow Rinky, your last two updates have been great. What a beautiful place!! I definitely would have stayed to enjoy the beach as well. :goodvibes I'm so glad you all enjoyed yourselves.

That's too bad about the workers in the bar. How nice to be at work and be high. Lovely. :sad2: The prices are crazy!

I think I also would have walked back as fast as I could have to the ship. Foreign countries kind of freak me out to be honest. I guess I'm not very cultured. :laughing:

Thanks Kelli! Well I can't say for sure that they were high or intoxicated, but I would bet they were by the way they acted. It appeared to me that that sort of thing is somewhat acceptable over there. :confused3 It's definitely something I am not used to seeing though. I guess I am just a sheltered, country girl, but I have never done any kind of drugs. Heck, I've only ever been drunk once and that was when I was a stupid teenager, and one experience of that was enough to break me for life. :rotfl: Sometimes when I travel, and I see things that are outrageous to me (thong girl, pot smoking guy, etc.), I realize what a sheltered life I really do live out here in the sticks! :laughing: And then I immediately thank God that he saw fit to have me born in the boonies! :worship:

And it's not just you Kelli. Traveling outside the U.S. freaks me out too. That is a big part of the reason that it took me so long to finally go on a cruise. Foreign countries just don't seem as safe to me and I worry about foreign governments. They can do some crazy stuff in those countries ya know and everything seems so corrupt and dishonest. IDK, maybe it's just me, but there is NOTHING like America in my book!
 
I can offer my 2 cents on the western caribbean ports. we went on Carnival in January 2008 - our first cruise ever!
We went to Grand Cayman, Belize City, Cozumel and Roatan Island, Honduras. I felt pretty safe at all the ports, but Roatan was a bit weird. It was still being developed and there was a lot of poverty that was very apparent. But people did not pester us too much, and we weren't afraid, just on notice.

We had really good experiences in Cozumel. We wandered the shopping area a bit on our own. No problems there. there were a lot of people around, but no one bothered us. Except taxi drivers offering to take us places. We eventually did take one to a beach and had a blast.
That's the only Mexican port we had - it was in place of Costa Maya which had just been hit by a hurricane the previous season.

I guess I would say always be wary in a foreign country, but do some research and you will be fine. Especially on a Disney cruise - they do try to alert you to any potential problems.
I'm becoming more adventurous - there's just so much to see and do out there! I still love where I live and know that we have the best here in the US, but I just don't want fear to limit my experiences. So being prepared and educated can help.

So says the woman who is going to EUROPE 6 weeks from Thursday!!!! :yay:
 
I can offer my 2 cents on the western caribbean ports. we went on Carnival in January 2008 - our first cruise ever!
We went to Grand Cayman, Belize City, Cozumel and Roatan Island, Honduras. I felt pretty safe at all the ports, but Roatan was a bit weird. It was still being developed and there was a lot of poverty that was very apparent. But people did not pester us too much, and we weren't afraid, just on notice.

We had really good experiences in Cozumel. We wandered the shopping area a bit on our own. No problems there. there were a lot of people around, but no one bothered us. Except taxi drivers offering to take us places. We eventually did take one to a beach and had a blast.
That's the only Mexican port we had - it was in place of Costa Maya which had just been hit by a hurricane the previous season.

I guess I would say always be wary in a foreign country, but do some research and you will be fine. Especially on a Disney cruise - they do try to alert you to any potential problems.
I'm becoming more adventurous - there's just so much to see and do out there! I still love where I live and know that we have the best here in the US, but I just don't want fear to limit my experiences. So being prepared and educated can help.

So says the woman who is going to EUROPE 6 weeks from Thursday!!!! :yay:

Well Sheree I would say that was worth way more than 2 cents! :laughing: But your 2 cents is always welcome here! I agree that there is a ton of stuff to see and do out there, but I will admit that my fear does hold me back. It's a personality thing I guess. I told you guys a long time ago that I am just like Nemo's dad! :laughing: I wouldn't say that I am a worry wart, but I just don't trust people, so it's hard for me to stray too far into uncharted territory. I'm working on it though and believe it or not, this cruise was a HUGE milestone for me! I really thought I would never leave the U.S., even though I've always wanted to see so many other places, so I have taken the first step. And then there's the whole fear of flying thing too... :rolleyes1 Let's face it, I just have issues! :lmao:

I think I will make it to Europe one day though, but somehow that seems different to me, particularly the UK. I am quite fond of places that speak English and have a similar style of government. ;) I think I could do Canada and Australia as well. Again that same language/government thing. Probably the only place that I really want to see that will never happen is Israel. DH and I both would LOVE to go to the Holy Land, but the thought of that scares me to death. The way those people have to live over there with the threat of attack always looming is so sad to me. I don't know how they ever feel a true sense of peace.

Anyway, thanks for giving your perspective on the Western Car. I haven't ruled that out yet and I appreciate the info. Our church made two mission trips to Honduras last year and that is the same way they described it, just a weird place. We are getting ready to go back and help some of the locals build houses and I would LOVE to participate in that.... but again, I'm just too afraid to go there. I'm working on it though. It's a process for me. I think our next mission project may be in Canada though and if it is, I think that would be a great time to get my feet wet so to speak.

I think the ports on the Disney cruise are Cozumel, Costa Maya, & Grand Cayman so I'll have to do my research on those. One thing is for sure... I WILL do my research!
 
Yeah, I guess that might be a dollar's worth of my blabber. :)

My DH is very happy that we are visiting London where they speak English too! We had to get an iPhone app for French. We definitely prefer visiting "westernized" countries.

Canada is pretty easy to manage too - I like what you said about the same style of government too. The countries that are similar in those ways are much easier to visit!

I don't think I will ever visit anywhere near the Middle East. My friends recently went to Egypt and I'm too nervous about that. No thanks. My dad is from Syria originally and I used to think it would be interesting to see where he grew up. Uh - uh. Even he said he'd never go back. Plus it isn't the same anyway.

Sometimes traveling is hard and daunting and there are some very serious concerns - obviously there are people out there who don't like us and we have reason to be nervous and scared.

Anyway - sorry to hijack and lecture about traveling! I hope you do get to go to some fabulous places - just like Blue Lagoon! That was just gorgeous!!!
 















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