The Un-Christmas! Dec 15-27 The Magic and Universal

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

My friend's son won't openly discuss his father's death either, my friend was concerned until my son overheard us discussing it and said if I were DFS(dear Friend's Son) I wouldn't want to talk about it either. After that we decided not to be to concerned they'll deal in their own way- Another friend's DD whose also friends with my son and DFS can't understand why God did not answer her prayer to save DFS 's father. Kids are amazing - and very insightful.

 

[dicar123]

December 17- Day at Sea

Well, the preventative advil did work some, but now I’m pretty sure there were two Long Island Iced Teas in my recent past. My tummy didn’t feel so good.

We slept late and didn’t want to make too much effort for breakfast, so we ordered room service and Ed got me some toast. After awhile I decided to take a shower and room service came and went while I was showering. When I emerged, Ed informed me that the toast had been forgotten. It hadn’t really sounded appealing anyway, so I told him to forget it.

Later, when Ed was clearing things up to put the tray outside, he found my toast wrapped in a napkin. Dustin would have found it had he actually tried to use the napkin but despite my years of nagging, he does not. I’m sure we watched Harry Potter this morning, and perhaps the Grinch too.

Lunch sounded much better than breakfast had and Ed wanted a sit-down lunch, so we decided to go to Lumiere’s. Dustin wanted no part of that so we took him up to the Ocean Quest Open House. Just before our lunch arrived, Dustin paged us because he was bored. Ed retrieved him and he sat and watched us eat, insisting that he wanted nothing himself, but managing to eat some of my fries. I had a steak sandwich which wasn’t bad, no idea what Ed ate.


Ed and Dustin swam awhile, and likely went to the arcade. I noticed that the kids pools really didn’t seem too crowded. We had pretty windy days, and off and on overcast skies, so I think the weather was keeping people away.

We went to the kids magic show, with Michael Harrison from the night before. (Beware parents: They will try to sell you stuff at the end of this. We declined, but were not quite as lucky at the Magic Shop at Universal). Again, Dustin and I really liked Michael Harrison, Ed was still lukewarm.

It was time for Flubber so we took Dustin to the Lab, and Ed and I wandered then decided to play Bingo. I always do regret this, so I don’t know why I keep playing. I think the price is high for what you get, but I realize that if they lowered the price the jackpots would be lower and fewer people would play. In any case, Bailey was running the game and working her little heart out to be entertaining.

I confess I found her a little annoying and the whole event seemed to last an eternity. The games were actually won quite quickly, and we were still there an hour. Bailey really was fine, but I was victim to a poor, still slightly hung over attitude.

We relaxed before dinner, which likely means we watched more Harry Potter and possibly the Transformers. We dressed all up in our formal attire, and Dustin complained.

Not only was I making the child wear a tie (evil enough by itself), I insisted upon getting pictures taken in said tie. I promised Dustin that he could remove the tie the moment we finished with the formal pictures! We had the photos taken in front of Lumiere’s and also a set in front of the Christmas tree. I was hoping for one to turn out well because I planned to have Christmas cards made.

I have to say that although we liked the décor of Parrot Cay, we had a terrible experience with the food. Ed ordered flounder (the menu says grouper, so it may have been that) that was dry, my steak was way over cooked and Dustin ordered some kind of chicken that had a bone in it and a sauce. A sauce, when the child was wearing a white formal shirt! He also ordered the chicken wings as an appetizer.

Surprisingly, he did a nice job of keeping himself clean. I know our server took over the chore of trying to debone Dustin’s chicken from me, but he still had problems with it. We decided to skip dessert and left early.

I imagine we later found stuff to eat on deck 9. Dustin went to the Lab, having no interest at all in the Golden Mickey’s. I was really looking forward to this, having heard so much about it, and Ed and I really, really enjoyed it.

I didn’t press Dustin to go because he really never watched Disney movies much so the characters and stories aren’t familiar. Derrick watched all the Disney movies when he was little, but he was 6 when Dustin was born and had outgrown them.

Dustin paged us very soon after the show ended, and we might have gone to the arcade. We asked him about the Marshmallow Olympics, thinking that playing around with marshmallows sounded fun. Dustin viewed it as an unwanted educational opportunity, explaining that it wasn’t so much playing with marshmallows, but learning about them (which the Navigator does say). He wasn’t thrilled with that. Really, sometimes the child is just a stinker.

We went back to our stateroom, probably watched Harry Potter some more and ordered Dustin a Mickey Ice Cream bar from room service. Oddly, they brought the ice cream on a warm plate. Good thing they were pretty quick about delivering it or Dustin would have made a terrible mess!

We were happy to get to bed early as we had an early morning excursion scheduled, and the next couple of days would be busy. I was trying very hard to make sure we stayed fairly well rested as our vacation was going to last so long. This was excellent decision-making on my part.

added note: boy there just isn't a happy medium with these pictures are there?

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

Hi Dianna. I was on the Magic with you. My DD made flubber, perhaps meeting your son. Your TR is amazing. Thank you for sharing your story. I have 2 friends who have lost children. to you and your family. I look forward to reading more.

 

[LITTLEKID58]

Hi Dianna

pixiedust and prayers go out to you and your family

Thank you so much for sharing your TR

 

[bats]

I read the first paragraph and thought twice about reading this TR ... I'm not one for morbid stuff .....
Here I am at the end then after reading each and every line!

It was really amazing (if that's the right word) to read about your feelings and how you are coping with the loss of your son.

I lost my nan on my 30th birthday and it's a bitter sweet day for me every year ... I'm happy as it's my birthday but I also know that my mum (and all of us of course) feels rotten on that day. It's difficult to know what to do for the best .. be happy or be sad?

You've just got to do what feels right of course and this is what you've done, very successfully it seems. Best wishes to you all from England. If there is an afterlife, my nan will be there partying it up!!

xx

 

[tjeagle]

Thank you so much for sharing your story and opening up your heart! I am looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[melissaknits]

I really want to commend and thank you for sharing this story.

 

[thisisthelife]

Thank you so much for opening your heart and sharing your trip report with us. I love your writing style, and my heart and prayers go out to your beautiful family, I am looking forward to reading more

 

[dicar123]

Hello newcomers! Welcome to my universe! On with the report...it is Grand Cayman Day and Palo!

December 18

This was the day that, oddly enough, we were all looking forward to the most. Now, I know that had we been home, my first thought upon awakening would have been, “A year ago today, Derrick died.” And I would have stayed in bed, ticking off the hours and thinking, “A year ago, right now, Derrick still was alive.” Until he wasn't.

On the cruise, however, it took me a few moments to get there. I woke up, immediately excited that it was Grand Cayman day! That means Captain Marvin and snorkeling and sting rays! Aw heck…if it’s Grand Cayman day, it’s December 18th, and Derrick died a year ago today. I quickly pushed those thoughts out of my head, and got up to see what time it was and if we were there yet!

We weren’t quite, and I watched much of our approach from the verandah. For some reason, a group of crew members had taken one of the lifeboats out. We saw them do this at most of the ports, and figure that must be part of ongoing safety drills.

Now, I had remembered reading a trip report in which the writer had booked an excursion independently and had trouble getting out on the early tenders and ended up late for his excursion. I was very worried that we would have this trouble, so the day before, I went to Guest Services to ask about this process. The woman I spoke with seemed to think that we would have no trouble at all, and actually seemed puzzled that I asked.

We were up by 6:45, and got breakfast at Topsiders. The Captain made announcements about the water being a bit rough, some excursions had been cancelled I think, and that because we couldn’t use the larger tender boats, that there may be some delays with getting off the ship.

Ed and I quickly decided to get right to Buena Vista Theater so we could get off the ship even though we weren’t to be at Captain Marvin’s until just after 9:00. We got to the theater at 8:00, and were called to board our tender at 8:10. It was totally painless and we had no trouble at all.

We very quickly found Captain Marvin’s place, and we were very early, but got all checked in with them and then went to look around a bit. We wandered into a shop that had hand carved wooden stuff and black coral jewelry. Ed is an amateur carver and really wanted one piece in particular with a sting ray and a dolphin. I’d have liked a pair of earrings. We thought it was silly to buy these things and try to tote them around all day, so we decided to come back after our excursion. Bad decision.

By the time we were finished, we were wet, thirsty and tired and buying the stuff didn’t seem nearly as urgent as it had seemed earlier. This would be a great money saving tip, except that after we’d left Grand Cayman we found that we really wanted those things and now it was too late.

Finally, it was time to board the buses that would get us to the boat (we experienced quite a few modes of transportation this day). We waited a little bit for stragglers, but it wasn’t bad. We drove a little ways to what must have been one of the crew members house.

It was right next to a decent sized inlet with a dock. We waited there awhile for other people to arrive. Someone noticed that the bathroom on board the boat wasn’t working well. This was bad news for me as I’d hoped to use it before we left. I asked a crew member about it and he directed me to a bathroom inside the house.

The bathroom was occupied, so I stood in the bedroom, absolutely itching to take a look around the rest of the house. I was polite and didn’t, but I was curious. Who ever lived there was living very modestly indeed.

Soon it was time to leave. We were with a large extended family group, and were introduced to Sam our videographer. She seemed very young (early 20’s maybe), and Ed and I wondered what her story was. Was this a full time job for her or did she go to school? We didn’t really have a chance to talk with her. She was adamant that if she pointed her camera at us she expected some action by God! So wave or something!

That makes me wonder if she’s got an entire video of all of us fools under water waving at her and scaring the fish away. I don’t know as we haven’t received the video yet, but we saw a preview while we were driving back and we didn’t seem to look like idiots.

(added note: I’ve now seen the DVD, and yeah, there are quite a few shots of us waving fools, but it is still really cool and I’m glad we have it.)

It was very overcast, and the seas were fairly rough. We were told that we were lucky, that last week had been very bad. Having heard about Tropical Depression Olga, I’m sure they weren’t exaggerating. We were on the boat about 30 minutes before we stopped for the first of two snorkel stops, then the sting rays were to be last. About 20 minutes into our boat ride, the sun came out and the clouds disappeared.

They had issued us all a life vest, a mask, a snorkel and flippers. When the boat stopped, we were all very eager to get out there. Now, it’s very hard to explain the next part, as I don’t quite understand myself what happened.

I was very calm prior to my entry into the water. In my defense, I must explain that I haven’t swum in the ocean in a very long time, and the only snorkeling I’ve done was in my backyard pool. The real thing is somewhat different! As I said, I was quite happy to get into the water.

I wasn’t using flippers as they felt very strange on my feet. Once I got into the water, I found that my mask wasn’t on quite right and I was getting water in it. As I treaded water, trying to readjust my mask, water was splashing into my face, getting into my mouth and I was having a really hard time breathing.

The next thing I know, Ed is tugging on me and pointing at the boat. I had gotten carried out too far without realizing it. My heart was pounding, I couldn’t breathe and Ed had to drag me back to the boat. Ed had been with Dustin and then noticed my trouble, settling Dustin right next to the rope (they throw a rope with a lifesaver on the end out into the water, and that makes it very easy to pull yourself in if you’re having trouble) and went out to rescue me.

We both got back onto the boat, I assured Ed that I would be perfectly fine in a minute, and sent him to go watch over Dustin.

I sat on the boat for a few minutes, catching my breath and trying relax myself. I was determined to get back out there. I did get back into the water (staying very close to the rope. Hmm, clinging might be a better description) and did just fine.

Unfortunately, I had wasted a lot of time, and that was our best snorkel stop, having a sting ray, a starfish and many other fish. After a couple of minutes, it was time to get back onto the boat and head to the next stop.

They mentioned the name of the next stop was The Aquarium. We all got off the boat, I stayed very close to the rope and looked around. It was still a pretty neat experience, but the first stop had much more to see. I was proud of myself for conquering the snorkel experience, but a little apprehensive about what was to come next. Sting Ray City.

(added note: both stops had tons of fish, as I see now from the DVD. I just missed them. )

Ed has friends who had done an excursion similar to this last summer. One of the men told Ed how they’d scared one of the women by rubbing the squid on her butt so that she was besieged by sting rays. I didn’t find the story at all funny, being rather unsure of how I’d like the experience. The whole sting ray thing was Ed’s idea to begin with, I was just playing along.

We headed off for the sandbar and Ed and Dustin decided to go to the upper level of the boat so that they could see better. I stayed below to guard our meager belongings. We arrived at the sand bar and could see a number of other boats and groups of people there. Given my vantage point, I barely noticed the dark shapes in the water, but Ed and Dustin had a great view!

We were given instructions not to swim, kick our feet or flail our arms around, and told we needed to kind of shuffle walk without raising our feet much. Ok. In order to anchor the boat, they had to leave it in somewhat deeper water. So Dustin and I, at least, had to get off the boat and then swim a bit until it got shallower. This didn’t much thrill me and I had visions of being impaled as I swam.

Oh yeah, before leaving the boat, they gave us dead squid to feed the sting rays with. Ordinarily I am the squeamish sort and wouldn’t touch a dead squid on a bet. However, on this day and time, that dead squid was the least of my concerns, so I took it, but avoided looking at it or thinking about it very much.

Dustin and I got to the sandbar, where we could stand, somehow losing Ed along the way. Our group was supposed to meet up and form a circle, I think, but that was kinda hard to do. So, we stood around and being aware of all the people nearby, I started to get annoyed when I kept getting bumped from behind.

I turned around to see who was bothering me, and saw that it wasn’t a person at all, but a sting ray. They were absolutely everywhere and have no manners at all! They will swim right between people, between your legs if you leave any room at all, and right up to your chest! Dustin and I were totally unnerved by the whole thing and too afraid to move much.

After a few moments, Dustin decided the whole thing was way too freaky for him and that he was going back to the boat. Luckily, he must have run into Ed on his way back. At Ed’s side, being that Ed was much calmer and steady in the water than Dustin’s ninny of a mother, Dustin was able to relax and even pet the sting rays.

I had all the intentions in the world of actually feeding a sting ray, but the ray came over my hand and I utterly freaked out, dropping the squid! I even went and got another squid, preparing myself to be really big girl about the whole thing! I wasn’t any braver the second time.

I did touch the top of one (kind of rough feeling) and the underside of them, I felt as they brushed my legs, was very very soft. Ed, on the other hand, not only fed them, but held them and even kissed one! Kissing a sting ray is supposed to bring 7 years of good luck, the opposite of breaking a mirror, I suppose. I guess I’ll just stick close to Ed for the next 7 years.

Our group did eventually make a circle and they got a whole talk about the rays and Sam was there taping a bunch of it. Yeah, I missed all of that. No matter, I was quite happy in the spot I found, thank you very much!

One funny thing happened. A guy next to me was holding his squid way up high in the air. I guess he was afraid a ray would grab it unexpectedly. He shouldn’t have worried so much about the rays, but a seagull flew by and snatched it right out of his hand. That poor guy gave a yell!

I know I haven’t made this trip sound very appealing, but truly it was the coolest thing we have ever done! It was totally freaky, very weird, and utterly fantastic. All of us would jump at the chance to do it again!

What is almost as much fun as the excursion itself is telling the people back home what you did! They completely wig out! “Ok, so you were in a tank, right?” Nope, right there in the ocean! “But the sting rays were tagged and tame or something, right?” Nope, totally wild. Invariably, at this point they ask, “Isn’t that how Steve Irwin died??” Then they give you this “Ohmigod!” look, when you act like it’s no big deal. It’s great!

A cousin seems sure that I contrived some diabolical plot to off the entire rest of the family on the anniversary of Derrick’s death! Yeah, she’s a bit of a drama queen.

Our time with the sting rays done, we clambered back onto the boat for the trip home (they did give us a squirt with a hose to rinse the salt water off, which I thought was a nice touch). Dustin immediately fell asleep, and I watched the video preview that Sam had set up.

The boat did have a bathroom, and they provided some water and fruit punch, but there was no food available. Many people brought snacks, but I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Captain Marvin’s crew was perfectly nice and professional. We had an excellent time.

We got back to the house, they bussed us back to the port and we reboarded the ship. It was about 2:00pm when we got to the tender. Captain Marvin did have a shorter excursion available, and a couple at later times. I think I would stick with the very earliest excursion as the last tender was scheduled for 4:30.

We returned to our stateroom, showered, got some lunch (probably at Plutos) and then went back and had a nap. Life was good.

We had 7:00 dinner reservations at Palo so we needed to figure out what Dustin was going to eat (the Lab probably had dinner scheduled around 5:00, and he wasn’t interested). Dustin thought a room service dinner sounded good (likely a turkey sandwich), so we ordered room service for him, got ourselves ready and then dropped him at the Lab with orders NOT to page us. We assured him that we would come and find him when we were finished.

We went to Palo and our server was Toni (male) from Spain. I thought he had a little bit of that “fancy restaurant/snooty waiter” thing going on, but that might be my insecurity speaking.

He asked if we wanted wine and I explained that I’m not much of a wine drinker, don’t really care for a lot of it. Well, Toni was sure he knew a wine that I would enjoy! I thought, “Knock yourself out Sparky!” and remained skeptical. I was most surprised that he did bring us a wine that we both enjoyed! It was a Trentino Moscato Giallo. Quite good! We decided to get the bottle.

Ed and I looked at the menu and although I did a lot of reading about people’s experiences at Palo, I wasn’t quite sure how the whole menu thing worked. I mean, people talked about their servers just bringing them all kinds of dishes. Were these courses or what? So, Toni asked if we understood the menu and though it seemed a silly thing to say, “No, I don’t understand the menu” we confessed our ignorance and threw ourselves on his mercy.

He quickly went through the menu, pointing out appetizers, soups, salads and so on. He offered his suggestions for appetizers, one of which was the grilled portabella mushroom. I chose that.

Ed wanted the tuna carpaccio. At this, Toni peered at Ed suspiciously. “Sir, do you know what carpaccio is?” he asked. Ed, rather a more adventurous eater than myself, explained that yes, he did know what carpaccio was. Toni went on to explain that the only reason that he did not recommend the carpaccio was that many people do not realize it is raw and become most unhappy when it is served to them!

At Ed’s explanation, Toni grew visibly warmer. He became almost chatty, explaining that the carpaccio is exactly what he has for lunch every day, and he will prepare it for Ed the way he eats it himself! I must admit, I became slightly jealous of Toni’s obvious approval of my husband and his appetizer choice. I started to yearn for a little of that approval myself.

Toni brought the appetizers, including a pesto shrimp that was amazing, and performed some very mysterious ritual over Ed’s carpaccio. My grilled mushroom was excellent. Ed pronounced the carpaccio very good, but thought that Toni’s additions to it masked the taste just a bit. I tried some of the tuna (up to this point, I’d only had seared tuna) and thought it was pretty good.

We also had the bread, several dips, and the antipasto which were all fine. I found the prosciutto and bresaola to be a bit too strong in flavor for my taste.

It was at this time that I began to wonder just a bit about the price of the wine we were so enjoying. Ed doesn’t often worry about the price of things and certainly not while in the middle of such an experience as this. I voiced my concerns and Ed looked at me with the little smile on his face which means “You cannot resist worrying, can you?” I frequently can’t, to be honest. With a laugh in his voice, Ed asked, “And if the wine costs $300, there isn’t much we can do about that, can we?” As I am not typically one to cause a fuss, he was exactly right. I resolved to put the issue out of my mind. It didn’t quite work, but I made the attempt.

Toni returned to ask our entrée choices. He made his recommendations, one was the filet, which I chose. Toni looked at me and asked how I wanted it cooked. I asked for it medium rare, and was gratified to see the glint of approval in his eyes.

Ed chose the lamb. Apparently, the carpaccio incident hadn’t quite convinced our friend Toni that Ed is familiar with food. He inquired, “Sir, have you have lamb before?” Ed assured him that yes, he quite likes lamb. Toni once again explained that the only reason he does not recommend the lamb is because many people are not prepared for its somewhat gamey taste. But he consented to bring Ed the lamb after assuring himself that Ed was not ordering in ignorance.

We were amused, but not quite sure what to think of Toni. Was he an excellent server, taking great pains to be sure that his guests would be satisfied with their choices? Or does he think us rubes, unfamiliar with good food, thus feeling the need to second guess our choices? We deliberately chose to believe the former while reserving the latter as a distinct possibility. In any case, we enjoyed the food and Toni quite a lot.

Our entrees arrived, along with a risotto dish that Ed had expressed interest in, and the lobster ravioli. All were excellent. We were also treated to pizza, half cheese and half prosciutto. While most of the world would find it utterly preposterous that a cheese pizza could inspire such joy in a person, those who have experienced Palo will know what I mean.

I’d never had fresh mozzarella cheese before. I took one bite and nearly melted! Ed was quite engrossed in his lamb and had paid no attention to the pizza quietly sitting on the table. Neither had Ed read page upon page of near obscene expressions of delight with this particular food choice. I confess, I had been skeptical myself. After all, it’s just a cheese pizza, right?

I took a bite of this creamy, gooey goodness and made an odd noise. It was more than “Mmmmmm”. My eyes got wide and I said, “Oh Ed, you HAVE to try this!” He gave me a look which clearly said, “Abandon my rack of tasty lamb for PIZZA? Are you nuts?” He studied the look on my face for a moment, and must have realized he was seeing a look never before seen unconnected to a chocolate dessert. He tried the pizza and grinned. “Yes, that is very good!” he agreed.

Now part of my goal upon entering Palo was to not eat so much that I felt sick and miserable the rest of the evening. Consequently, I was eating just a few bites of this and a few bites of that. Toni looked concerned when he returned and found that I’d eaten only half of my filet. It was really good, but I was nearing the point of full and we still had dessert to come.

I was really, really looking forward to dessert! Ed, not as much as a chocolate lover as myself, had been infected by my desire for the chocolate soufflé. I was surprised when he ordered it frankly. He is usually more adventurous than that.

He’d seen the sugar, half circle thing which comes with the panna cotta and had been curious about that, but didn’t know what it was. Luckily for us, dear Toni brought not only 2 chocolate soufflés, but a serving of panna cotta as well! I explained to Ed that tons of people raved over that dish. Not being a fan of custard or fruit with tiny seeds, I’d avoided it like the plague.

I quite enjoyed the chocolate, Ed thought it “good”, but he really thought the panna cotta was outstanding. So much so that he was sure I needed to try it. I reminded him of my dislike for eggy things and he waved that concern away. He acknowledged my intense hatred of tiny seeds by saying that I needn’t try the fruit. Actually, the custard wasn’t bad at all. If you’re a person who likes custard at all, you will love this.

Our meal over, we were completely and utterly satisfied. The whole experience had been just wonderful. Then came the “check”. I cringed, still somewhat worried about the wine. (Ok, ‘fess up, how many of you checked the Palo menu to find the price of the wine?) Ed smiled at me and said the wine was only $30. We tipped our friend Toni a nice amount, and still felt we’d gotten quite a bargain. And Dustin really hadn’t paged us! Very cool! We wandered outside to enjoy the rather strong wind, took about 3 steps and the pager went off. Of course!

The kids were playing dodgeball on the Sports Deck so we arrived quickly. The CM in charge of checking children in and out looked apologetic and asked if we’d finished our dinner. She’d known we were at Palo and was concerned she’d interrupted us, but she’d already delayed Dustin once. We assured her that the timing had been perfect and chatted with her a moment about Palo.

I had assumed that CM’s, if they had the right hours off and the restaurant wasn’t full, could go to Palo. That is definitely not the case! Only if they are being recognized, or on rare special occasions are they allowed to go. This CM had only been once. I immediately felt a little bad for mentioning to all and sundry CM’s I’d encountered where we were going.

Not only am I on vacation, which you are not (not to speak of the fact that my job is surely less demanding than theirs), I am on my way to a fabulous restaurant you cannot attend even though it is right under your nose every day! And people keep telling you how fabulous it is! Eeek! So, speak up if CM’s provide excellent service, you might help them earn a dinner at Palo!

I’m sure we all wandered awhile and then went to bed. Towel animal: an elephant, I think.

I did find a quiet time that evening to ask Dustin if he knew what day it was. He didn’t. I told him that it was December 18. He looked at me blankly. I reminded him that Derrick had died on December 18. It was exactly one year ago.

Dustin looked deep in thought, nodded a little and said nothing. I had a few private tears on the verandah that night, but was so grateful for the day that we’d had! I have one December 18 filled with the most awful memories, and one filled with all the cool stuff that we did. It makes the date seem better somehow. I’d discovered that December 18 doesn’t have to be the worst day of the year. It will be whatever I make of it.

In some future year, when it isn’t so much like poking sticks into an open wound, I might have the ability to sit quietly with myself on that day. But this year, I just couldn’t face it. And that’s ok. I have plenty of time.

 

[outlander]

Seriously woman, you have a way with words!
Another great addition! I'll have to admit though, when I got to the stingray part I was definitely rethinking my own stingray excursion! Glad you enjoyed the experience regardless.

 

[fairfax]

I just found your TR and have spent the last hour reading it. It's brought me to tears and also made me laugh. I wish you and all your family the best and am so sorry for your loss.

I'm looking forward to reading more, you have a wonderful writing style!

 

[llachance]

enjoyed reading your post. My sister lost her infant son just before Christmas, now 13 years ago. She has his twin brother as a reminder and now a younger son who keeps us in stitches. She belongs to the group Compassionate Friends and it has been an amazing source of comfort to her. The 1st Christmas after the death they traveled out of town as well. After a number of years the celebration is at her house now! Your boys will always be a part of you - no matter where they live.

 

[VacationKicks]

My deepest sympathy for your loss. As many others have pointed out you are a strong woman. I'm glad you made some good memories on the 18th!

We are taking a western cruise in July '09 and I am loving your trip report. I don't know if my family is up for the sting rays, but it does sound cool.

 

[dicar123]

Outlander-You MUST do the sting rays! It really is very cool. I'd like to do it again now that I've maybe gotten the whole, "This is SO freaky" thing out of my system.


fairfax- thanks for coming by! I hope to have the cruise portion wrapped up by Monday.

llachance- thanks for your kind words! We'll get back to doing Christmas eventually, no doubt adding something screwy to the mix! LOL!

VacationKicks- I vote for sting rays unless you have pretty small kids. Gosh, I hope no one decides against it because I'm a ninny and was weirded out! It was neat, it really was!

 

[dicar123]

December 19-Cozumel

Another early morning. I have no notes for this day (or the next for that matter), but I clearly remember that this was Ed’s day to be helpful to all sorts of people! That’s always nice.

Our excursion for this day was Xcaret! After breakfast at Topsiders we made our way to the Buena Vista Theater to meet with our group. We were Peter Pans, I think. The whole process was rather efficient for the large groups of people checking in for 3 separate excursions. We made our way through the boat and out onto the pier where we met our “watercraft”. No tendering today, but we couldn’t escape a boat ride.

The boat was all enclosed and pretty comfortable as those things go. There was a tourist video being played at the front, drinks (and perhaps snacks, we didn’t want any) and bathrooms were available. The ride took about 30 minutes and it was a fairly rough ride.

We exited the watercraft and assembled ourselves under a large wooden pavilion sort of thing while we were organized by our tour guide Jesus.

That, too, was reasonably efficient and then we trooped en masse through a bit of the town to get to our buses. The buses were quite comfortable, very charter bus like.

I’ll say the bus ride took about 10-15 minutes and Jesus explained a bit about the area and the buildings we passed. He had a nice sense of humor and seemed to know what he was talking about. We arrived at Xcaret and Jesus explained that we were just as safe as we could be, following around a guy named Jesus in December. He explained that while we could explore on our own, he didn’t really advise it.

The park is large and the likelihood of getting lost and not seeing anything really good was high. Our time was pretty limited, perhaps 3 hours in the park altogether. He promised that although we would only get a taste of what the park had to offer, he would take us to the most popular and interesting spots (first stop: the underground river).

Jesus also explained that we all were entitled to vouchers for lunch, a hamburger or hot dog. He wondered aloud at thinking of someone who brings you to Mexico and then offers you a hamburger or a hot dog for lunch, and I must say, I agreed with him there.

We walked through the entrance, following Jesus through a gift shop/snack bar area and on to where we would get life vests for the underground river. There are large bags available to lock your belongings in. While Ed was getting our bag, I happened to turn to my right and see…monkeys! How cool was that?

I quickly called to Dustin and he thought watching the monkeys was great fun. Ed arrived with our bag; we piled everything in, locked it up, turned it in and set about getting our life vests. I wasn’t paying too much attention when I got my vest. I found, after I’d walked away, that one of the two straps designed to run down your back, between your legs and snap to the front of the vest was broken. The other was very loose. Really, it didn’t seem very important, so I ignored it.

That wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made. Those straps are apparently designed to keep the vest from riding up around your neck. I was forever yanking the darn thing down!

Vests on, and having been warned several times about the very cold temperature of the water, we prepared to enter. You can choose the portion of the river which is entirely covered, or you can choose the part which is only partially covered. We chose partial cover, expecting that we wouldn’t see much in the fully covered one.

As we were waiting to enter the water (there was a little bit of a line) Ed entered into a conversation with a woman behind him. She noticed that he had the same camera as she did (silver, naturally) and asked if he’d put it under water yet. The two of them chatted for a bit, and Ed promised that her camera wouldn’t be ruined underwater.

We went into the water and it was pretty cold, but it wasn’t quite as bad as the warnings had suggested. Most of the time, neither Dustin nor I could walk through the water as we are fairly short (I’m 5’1”) but Ed could walk through all of it (5’ 10”). The water was pretty clear, but the more people in an area the less you were likely to be able to see. Some other guests had masks and snorkels and told us there was fish in the water. We’d never have noticed had they not told us.

The walls on the side of the river, and cave walls were extremely rough. If you have smaller children caution them to stay away. One young lady got a nasty scrape. We saw a crab and a couple of bugs on the walls but nothing so interesting you’d want to be close anyway.

The whole thing was pretty neat, hard to describe, really. The caves were dark. The open places were not. Sometimes the open places were just really tall walls that ended in sky, sometimes you were “ground level” with plants and stuff. At one point we entered a room with a stained glass window. Easier just to post pictures, really.

So, there I am, floating along, Indiana Jones images running through my mind, when Ed gives a shout. “Wait up a minute! I’m going to help someone.” Ok. I told Dustin to slow down and the two of us waited.

There was a photographer right here taking pictures of this guy and the people in the water. He was pretty fierce looking!

Ed caught up in a few minutes and explained that the lady who he’d been chatting with about cameras had dropped hers in the water and that he’d retrieved it for her. The lady thanked him over and over and Ed insisted it had been no problem at all. Then he caught up with us.

We continued on, Ed offered to take a group picture for a French speaking family. We got to the end of the river, got out, fetched our bag and got dried up and dressed. By this time we’d pretty much lost track of our group.


We could see Jesus walking from place to place but he didn’t seem to have a group with him. We were near a restaurant so we decided to eat. I have no idea if we could have used our vouchers here for the hamburger or hot dog, but we didn’t plan to use them anyway.

Ed and I, on our first cruise, decided to forego dinner on the ship one night and found a local restaurant. It was the best meal we’d had and we’ve resolved to try to “go local” if possible. The restaurant was open air and quite comfortable, right next to the beach.

Our waiter spoke enough English to tell us about the menu, which was handy because aside from being able to order beer, neither Ed nor I speak Spanish! Ed got a grilled fish which was good. Dustin had the grilled chicken breast which he enjoyed and I ordered chicken fajitas. I grew up in southern California and am familiar with “real” refried beans. A boyfriend’s mother used to cook them for me. I dream about those beans, and was hoping to find them here. Alas, it was not to be. If I’d had this meal while in Kentucky, I’d have been perfectly content. Having this meal in Mexico was a bit disappointing.

After eating, we realized we had only about an hour and half left. Our group was nowhere to be found, although we could see Jesus wandering the restaurant. We made the risky decision to set out on our own. If you are direction/map challenged, you may not want to take this risk. The place is pretty confusing.

Dustin had noticed, out closer to the beach, some men with parrots and people holding them. Having paid attention on our walk through the shop at the entrance of Xcaret, I knew that the men were taking photos that could be purchased at the shop (along with all the photos they take while you are in the underground river- 2 or 3).

Dustin wasn’t quite brave enough to want to hold the parrots himself, but he thought Ed doing it was a good idea. So, we wandered over and a man quickly placed a green parrot into Ed’s hands and snapped a picture. Dustin got close to Ed and was tentatively touching parrot feathers when the man asked if we wanted a picture. Ed nodded and before Dustin knew what was happening, he was holding the green parrot!

Then, before I knew what was happening, I was scooted close to Dustin and a red parrot was placed on my head! Ed was pulled close and a parrot was placed on his head! Now, I have to say, having a parrot on your head is an odd sensation. They aren’t particularly heavy, but a person with less hair than I (say, umm Ed) could find that an uncomfortable position to be in.

The picture was snapped, the birds rearranged, Ed and pulled to the side, and they got a picture of Dustin with all three birds (holding one, another on his shoulder, one on his head). Ok, since we now need to leave ourselves enough time to get back to the shop, find the pictures and buy them (the set-up is similar to Shutters), we’d better get moving and see other stuff!

Task number one: Find the Sea Turtles. We were not the only ones looking for the sea turtles and for a few minutes we had a trusting little group following us. They lost faith in Ed’s ability to find places (which I would never do!) and fell away, just a few minutes before we found them! Dustin was immediately transfixed!

He loved them (and now wants me to find a way for him to swim with sea turtles)! They were so big, and there were so many! Every few seconds one would raise its head above the surface to breathe. They really were neat. Ed laid down on the path to reach down and try to touch one. He could reach well (the turtles didn’t seem bothered by this), but Dustin and I could only barely skim our fingers over top of a shell.


I suddenly noticed that while we’d been so preoccupied trying to touch the turtles, we were making it very difficult for people to get around us. Sorry random strangers. I had to prod the men-folk to leave, but leave we did. Ed really wanted to see the Butterfly Pavilion. Dustin stared at his father. You want to go where? Yes, real men can like butterflies!

We found the pavilion and walked through the heavy rope doorway (less chance for escapees, I guess). There were a ton of butterflies! Sadly, they seemed to be mostly the same type. The type with a big, creepy eye-looking thing on their wings! All around the place were bowls with some kind of fruit looking stuff and massed all over the fruit were tons of these icky butterflies. It gave me the shivers, to be honest.

We got very few neat pictures here because the butterflies would not obey Ed’s commands to, “Be still, darn you!” Ok, done with butterflies. We found a jaguar pen, saw a huge iguana on the path and found some deer type things. Wanting to get our pictures and still be on time for the bus, we decided it was time to start making our way toward the front.

Some of the things unseen by us were manatees, a bat cave, a Mayan village, a bird sanctuary and an aquarium. While we were trying to find the correct path to take us to the front, we happened upon a strange looking animal. Since none of us knew what it was, we looked for a sign to explain. The animal was a tapir. Ed and I looked at each other and grinned.

Yup, I actually have a tapir story. Derrick, sometime while he was in middle school, came home with a ceramic…something. It was clearly an animal, having 4 legs, ears, a head and something of a snout, but I wasn’t at all sure what kind of animal.

I danced around and around the subject, making comments without being specific, hoping he would let slip what the thing was! Finally, I had to confess. “Ok, Derrick. You’re gonna have to tell me what this is.” “Why, it’s a tapir!” he said. Yay! I get to avoid the bad mommy award since I’ve never heard of a tapir and certainly cannot be held responsible for identifying one. We looked it up online and, by golly, the kid did a pretty good job!

If I’m feeling silly enough, maybe I’ll post a picture of Derrick’s tapir. Accidentally stumbling into a tapir while on vacation gave us a warm little feeling in our hearts.

We made our way back to the entrance, found the photos and bought almost all of them. Ed visited the ATM, which paid him in pesos (we needed to tip Jesus), we got something to drink and went back to the bus. The bus trip and walk back to the watercraft was uneventful. I wish I could say the same about the little boat trip back to Cozumel!

As I said before, the boat ride between the ship and Playa del Carmen took about 30 minutes. The trip out had been reasonably rough. They trip back was significantly worse. Additionally, the trip back included vendors trying to sell us cigars and jewelry. They were not as pushy as some I’ve encountered, but we were captive on this boat. It was uncomfortable.


Once we finally got rid of the cigar guy, a woman behind us started vomiting. Now, I did have all the sympathy in the world for this poor lady, but all I could think was, “Oh God, she has to stop!” I was really afraid of the domino effect of vomiting. She did stop fairly quickly.

Now here is the difference between Ed and me: I would never approach a vomiting stranger. I felt terrible for the woman! What an awful position to be in while in public! Were I the sick person in question, I think I would want everyone to pretend I didn’t exist. I don’t think I’d want someone to acknowledge my very public dilemma by talking to me. Maybe I would, I don’t know.

In any case, Ed remembered that we had damp towels and an unopened bottle of water and offered them to the lady and her family. Ed really is a terrific guy. The people were very appreciative and I hope we didn’t cause any additional embarrassment to them.

We checked back onto the ship, and while going up in the elevator, a woman looked at Ed and exclaimed, “Hey, you’re the camera guy!” Ed’s response was something like, “Huh?” The woman explained that she was in the group with the lady whose camera Ed had rescued. “She wants to buy you a beer!” she said. Ed expressed how very nice that was of her friend and joked that if he ran into her, he might take her up on the offer.

The next day, we went back to our room to find a note from this lady stuck on our fish! She had a gift for us that she wanted to deliver before dinner, could we please call her? Ed felt a little sheepish, calling to collect on a reward, but the lady was just as grateful as she could be. She brought us a bottle of very nice red wine, and the information necessary to ensure that we would not incur a corking fee!

She also explained that had Ed not found her camera, she would have been out the price of a brand new camera, but more importantly would have lost her pictures from the whole vacation. We certainly understood her gratitude and though a reward was completely unnecessary, we accepted her gift with as much grace as possible. It was a nice experience for everyone, I think.

This was Pirate Night!! We were feeling pretty perky, I thought, as our excursion hadn’t involved a significant amount of energy. We set off for dinner (Animator’s Palette) with springs in our steps! I think Dustin and I started with Pearls of the Caribbean, but I remember nothing about it. I do remember the banana bread was wonderful though. Dustin and I also had the shrimp and scallops with pasta. (Ed was seated on the other side of the table and I’m quite sure I ignored him.)

Our Head Server came around and de-shelled all our shrimp (the dish was popular with our table), joking the whole way. Dustin and I employed a team approach to this meal. He ate the pasta and I ate his seafood! It was pretty good!

By this time, the kids had become fast friends, and they all disappeared together, going to the Lab and completely missing the Pirate Party in the dining room. I must confess we were all fairly happy to see them go. We had the chocolate cake for dessert, and wandered down to Sessions.

Oddly enough, we ran into our tablemate J there. We sat and talked for quite awhile. I’ll relate two of his stories for your amusement and edification. J, being on the cruise with only his son, found filling his time while C was mixing with other kids a tad difficult. Because of this, he had decided to attend the singles lunch for a little light-hearted chat with others in a similar situation-he has a long-standing lady friend at home.

Upon arriving at the lunch, he met a pleasant-seeming woman who began to relate her struggle with breast cancer. While they were chatting about this, they were joined by a man who was traveling alone with his two children. They were without mom because mom passed away last year. As the woman and the man discussed their various struggles, J sat there trying to think of a polite way to get out of there.

He was sympathetic to their plight, he quickly explained to us, but it wasn’t exactly the light-hearted chat he’d been looking for. Ed and I sat there, exchanging small amused smiles, thinking, “If he only knew…”

He had asked us about our Palo experience and while telling him about that, I mentioned the wine and how I’d been worried about the price. Our friend J was quite the drinker of wine, we’d noticed. He laughed and related the following tale.

The first night at dinner, he’d read the wine list and found a wine he’d wanted to try. That wine was $175 per bottle. He asked for it, and it was quite good. The rest of the week, he had asked for recommendations (dealing with our main server) and had been pleased with all the wines presented to him. He’d happened to check his stateroom account that very day and found that all the recommended wines had been $200 and up per bottle and he was finishing a bottle each night!

He wasn’t particularly upset over the cost, just taken a bit by surprise. We all figured that after the first night, they simply offered him wines comparable to the one he had chosen. So, if you plan to order an expensive wine the first night at dinner, and recommendations thereafter, beware!

Dustin was remarkably unexcited about the coming deck party. In fact, he was quite insistent that he’d rather play dodge ball. Dodge ball began sometime after the Pirate Party and I promised that if he still wanted to go at that time that we would, of course, take him.

There was no mention of how he would be breaking his mother’s heart. The mother who had been looking forward to this party for almost a year. The mother who was feeling a bit tired and not quite in the party mood herself, but was faking it.

We staked out a nice spot on deck 10, grabbed some drinks and waited for the party to start! Dustin began to complain about the wind (it was pretty darn windy). Dustin continued by complaining about the cold. Dustin kept on being a pain in the butt. Before the event even started, I was more than willing to send him to play dodge ball, but by this time he’d changed his mind and only wanted to go back to the stateroom.

We told him, “Too bad!” and proceeded to ignore his grumpy looks and quickly couldn’t hear his complaints anymore anyway. I continued to play along because I really didn’t want to miss Pirate Night and regret it later, but I was exhausted and having a hard time being enthusiastic. Immediately after the fireworks finished, we went back to our stateroom.

Dustin, within ½ second of lying down, was snoring to beat the band! I grudgingly agreed with Ed that the child was simply tired and not really an ungrateful little snot. Yes, mom was a bit grumpy herself. I went to bed and we all felt a lot happier after a good, long night’s sleep. Towel animal: monkey.

 

[dicar123]

December 20-Day at Sea

As I said, I have no notes, and we have very few pictures from this day. Short report coming up!

We slept very late. So late, in fact, that I was concerned about making our 10:30 Palo brunch on time. We dropped Dustin at the Lab, and went to brunch. I found that I am not at all an adventurous eater at 10:30 in the morning. Again, I played along, but my heart wasn’t in it. Ed thought brunch was wonderful. Everything I tried was good; I just wasn’t in the mood to try much.

Dustin left the Lab, then went back to the Lab, so Ed and I played a trivia game and bombed terribly (apologies to our other team member). Then we went to Guest Services to sign Ed up for the beer tasting.

We were in line behind two men also signing up for the beer tasting. They were already rather drunk and took an extraordinarily long time signing up. That poor CM! Ed enjoyed the beer (7oz servings he said) and got to try one he’d never had before. He even won a couple! Apparently the official, correct answer to the question, “Who wants a free beer?” is “Me!” Who knew?

Dinner was in Parrot Cay. I’d decided on the shrimp appetizer and both Ed and Dustin asked for the oysters. Dustin ate two and then couldn’t get the meat from the shell and so gave up. He and Ed both liked the oysters and the shrimp was good.

I had quite a time deciding on an entrée, none of them being appealing to me. I checked the kids menu out of desperation and found the kid’s surf and turf. That sounds like a plan! Dustin made terrible fun of me and our server was disturbed.

She said, “You couldn’t find anything you like?” But not in an “Oh dear, how may I help rescue this situation from disaster!” tone, but more of a “You are such a rube” tone. As I said, we didn’t really care for her much anyway. I quite enjoyed my steak and shrimp (they did double the amount).

Ed had the lobster and liked it. Dustin asked for the chicken and pasta and liked that too. And now it was time for dessert. While attempting to hand Dustin a dessert menu (at least, that is what I assumed happened), our dear server completely lost control of the thing and it hit me in the back of the head.

With all the phony haughtiness I could muster, I turned around and asked, “Did you just SMACK me with that menu?” The poor woman doubled over with laughter (I suspect she’s had fantasies of hitting guests with a menu), which made me laugh hysterically, and there we were, clinging to each other as she tried again and again to apologize but couldn’t get the words out for laughing so hard. She finally had to excuse herself.

That was the most fun we had with her all week! We ate the chocolate lava cake, which was quite outstanding!

Ed and I decided we wanted to see Dreams. Dustin did not, so he asked to go to the Lab. A short way into the show, we were paged. “Dustin would like to come to the show, if it isn’t too late.” Ed ducked out and fetched him and we all ended up enjoying the show quite a lot. Even Dustin.

We returned to our stateroom and found our towel animal.

And here we end, because that is all I remember! But Castaway Cay is coming up!!

 

[dicar123]

Here is some random FYI!

When you go into the public bathrooms on the boat, you will find that all of the stall doors are generally closed. The doors go from ceiling to floor, making checking for feet in occupied stalls impossible.

One day, I expressed some frustration at this, and a little girl told me how to identify occupied stalls (well, locked ones anyway).

Unlocked

Locked


In the middle of our vacation planning, a friend of Ed's mentioned that his mom had arranged to take the whole extended family to Mexico for Christmas. Ed asked where they planned to go and the friend replied, "Playa Del Carmen." They arrived on the very day that we were at Xcaret! How weird is that?

Anyhow, they stayed at the Occidental resort, which is actually inside the Xcaret park. They thought it was a wonderful place and highly recommend it. It has a bunch of pools, a beach, a large number of restaurants and activities. Sometimes admission to Xcaret is included for one day and it's within reasonable traveling distance to the ruins at Tulum. It is an all inclusive. So, if you've been to this area and think you might want to go back, consider the Occidental.

 

[dicar123]

December 21- Castaway Cay

I woke up, peered out the verandah window and thought “Oh no!!” The skies were not looking at all friendly for our Castaway Cay day.

(Obviously, this is not a picture from the verandah, and it wasn't actually raining. CM's were cleaning the deck and got the windows wet.)

We had breakfast and got off the ship quickly after “All Ashore” was announced. This was not a hard thing. It seems most people were put off a bit by the nasty looking weather and took their time. Having looked forward to this day for so long, we decided we could at least wander a bit if the water wasn’t inviting.

We walked off, grabbed some towels, and wandered down the street taking pictures. We found Mount Rustmore and took some pictures while Mickey Mouse waited quite politely for us to finish.

Dustin and I found some chairs to claim while Ed got our snorkel equipment. Then, the sun came out! We really are the magic sunshine people!

The three of us spent two hours (which flew by!) snorkeling, finding the Mickey (I smartly asked a CM who pointed out the white buoy to me), the propeller and a chain. We didn’t find a ton of fish, but enough to keep us satisfied. I was really uneasy about the feel of grass underfoot. I don’t know why, so I just avoided putting my feet down!

We walked back to our chairs to find our tablemate C camped out right beside our stuff! It was a total coincidence, but a very nice thing, and we enjoyed being with them. Dustin, having seen jet-skiers was very eager to try it. He and I went to find lunch while Ed went to investigate the possibility of getting one.

Lunch was found and deemed acceptable. I quickly found the soft serve, and serving it was our brunch guy from the day before! Ed joined us and told Dustin that he had managed to book the jet-ski, but for a bit later in the afternoon. We wandered a little after lunch, and tried to read the sign of the obviously closed play structure (low tide-it did open later in the afternoon).

Ed went to get a drink and found that he’d lost his key card. Dustin was quite convinced that Ed would have to remain on Castaway Cay forever! We, however, knew that there must be some procedure for allowing Ed back on the ship. He cannot have been the first to lose his card there. It was simply a matter of how much time and effort it would take.

We retraced his steps a bit and I stumbled into an information booth. I asked if a card had, by chance, been turned in. Now I had absolutely no expectation that first, someone actually found the card, second had actually turned in the card and third, would have turned it in to this particular information booth (hmm, that was actually the only information booth I saw all day. Perhaps there is only one?). Imagine my surprise and delight when the CM immediately replied, “Ed?” Ed claimed his card and Dustin could finally relax.

It was now time for their jet-ski excursion so we made our way to that part of the beach. I had the intention of waiting until they got on the jet-ski and headed out in order to take pictures, but the wait was quite long and I lost my patience. I went snorkeling instead. I found the Mickey again, but somehow being alone and the quietness of water conspired to make Mickey seem a sinister figure. It really did freak me out a bit and I was seized by an urgent need to get the heck out of there. Weird, huh?

When I returned to our chairs, I found Ed and Dustin sitting there. Back so soon? They had set out in 3 groups. Ed and Dustin, another father and kid pair, and a young adult couple. The water was pretty rough, so the trip to get out around the reef was not very pleasant.

The young couple was in the front. Ed and the other dad were finding this such rough going that they stopped and discussed with each other the advisability of continuing. It was at this same moment that the young couple in front toppled into the water. The two were not at all hurt, but it was agreed that the water was just too rough so the excursion was cancelled and all parties were given a full refund. Many, many excursions had been cancelled. I don’t know that they did any parasailing at all that day.

After the first couple of hours, the skies had once more clouded up. The wind blew pretty heavily off and on throughout the day. As I walked to one of the showers to rinse off, the wind was blowing itty bitty little sand particles onto my legs. That actually hurt!

As we sat talking about the jet-ski adventure, our other tablemates happened upon us and took a seat. The three kids, noticing that the play structure was now open, begged to be allowed to go there by themselves. We could see it pretty well from where we were so allowed the kids to go.

Someone mentioned that drinks were now two for one and we couldn’t pass that up. So we sat there, the wind blowing like crazy and occasionally getting rained on. Many less hearty souls gave up and went back to the ship.

Not us! We were already wet, so what’s a little rain? We finished our drinks, the kids returned and we caught the shuttle back to the ship at around 4:00. The sun came out again after we were back on the ship and it looked beautiful for the last hour we were there.

As Ed was on the verandah taking pictures, he also watched as one of the life boats was being readied to be put back on ship. Ed was curious about this process. As he watched the boat begin to be lifted, one of the lines broke! They had so much trouble with this boat that we never did see it lifted back. We had to get to dinner.

All cleaned up and with a bit of alcohol still in us, we were quite the merry little group at our Lumiere’s table by the kitchen! The table next to us didn’t show and we seemed to have our servers all to ourselves. The ice maiden warmed up slightly, whether because of impending tips and because she was glad to see the, almost, last of us we did not know.

Eager to keep the party going, I requested a glass of that very nice Palo wine, not even wondering if this were going to be hard to accomplish. No worries, it showed up quite quickly and I was approached by the Big Guy (head Server). “You like that wine?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Why, yes. Yes I do” I replied. “People come on this cruise for that wine, you know?” Excuse me? “Oh yes,” he said. “You cannot find this wine in the States. You should take some bottles home with you.” Are you kidding me? I finally find a wine I really like and now you’re telling me I won’t be able to get it?

I didn’t really believe him. Ed dithered a bit about whether or not to buy a couple of bottles while I dismissed the whole thing.

I chose the seafood medley, and the tenderloin. Both good. Dustin decided on the chicken tenders and chicken Wellington. Who knows what Ed had? They did the parade thing and we clapped wildly. Dessert was chocolate cake and baked Alaska, both yummy.

At this point, we were all feeling slightly uncomfortable, not knowing how exactly to approach the matter of tipping. While Ed and Dustin had been occupied the day before, I had paid our tips. Unbeknownst to Ed, I tipped more than the suggested amount to our beverage server, as he’d worked so hard and we’d found him so personable. I did not find out until dinner that Ed had been tipping the guy an extra $3, 4 each night with his drink. He deserved every penny and ended up making far more in tips than the main server!

Finally, getting tired of whispering amongst ourselves, I simply said, “Here’s your tip! Thanks so much!” That broke the ice and tips were given and received quite graciously. We promised to see each other again the next morning and went our separate ways.

Ed and I had intended to begin packing up the day before and failed. We had intended to pack some before dinner and failed at that too. We had some work to do! I began pulling things out and Ed began packing. This was such an efficient process that we decided we had time to attend the show!

Dustin, having unexpectedly enjoyed himself the night before, chose to join us! We all liked the show, glad to see a little of what we had missed earlier in the week. The show over, we had things to do! We needed to finish packing, pick up Christmas cards at Shutters and turn in our pager!

Back at the room, I left Ed finishing up and ran our errands. Dustin fell asleep. Errands done, packing finished and bags placed in the hallway, I approached Ed about the possibility of us sneaking out to see the farewell thing in the atrium.

Here is where we become horrible parents! Dustin was sound asleep, and I had seen that the last minute autographing seemed to be well underway. Surely if we snuck out now, we’d catch the show just in time and be back in the room quite quickly! Sean and other stateroom hosts are wandering up and down the hallway taking baggage. Dustin ought to be quite fine and never even know we are gone!

Ed agreed to this plan so off we went. The autographing finished up just as we arrived. We watched the little show, I cried a tear or two and Ed was nearly launched over the railing by a confetti guy who wasn’t in the right place when his cue came.


Weary and completely satisfied we walked down the hall to our stateroom for the last time. We saw Sean. He checked to make sure our bags were out. We promised they were, swore we needed nothing else from him and thanked him for a wonderful week. Then I opened the stateroom door.

Oh, Dustin is in the bathroom. “Mom,” he said with a tremble in his voice, “I threw up!” Then, the smell hit me. Oh dear. Dustin had not made it to the bathroom; in fact he barely made it out of the bed. I felt like the worst mother ever! The one time we leave him alone in the whole week… I ducked my head out, “Sean, we have a problem!”

Now, I honestly assumed that, like elementary schools who deal with this problem occasionally, Disney had some easy-peasy way of cleaning up the mess. Oh, they don’t seem to. Poor Sean was on his hands and knees with a scrub brush! He was as nice and understanding and reassuring as he could possibly be. But it was obvious that Sean was having a hard time getting through the clean-up process, even with the verandah door open.

He asked if we wanted the carpet cleaned and I told him that if it would make it easier on him to take care of it now, that we would wait while the carpet was cleaned. If it made no difference, we’d just as soon try to get some sleep (with the verandah door open, he advised). He said it made no difference, so that is the way we left it.

Dustin continued to vomit and have diarrhea the whole time Sean was cleaning. We, of course, had absolutely nothing to give him, having sent away our bags. I knew the medical facility was closed and went off to get some advice.

I hurried down a flight of stairs, intending to go to Guest Services, but found myself in front of the Lab. They could be the perfect people to help me! I quickly explained our problem and the CM said that although the medical facility was closed, they did have a duty nurse. She would page the duty nurse and have him call our stateroom. Wonderful, thank you so much!

I returned to our room (so much for the last walk! LOL) and we waited for the call. It seemed to take an eternity, but was probably about 15 minutes. Dustin was feeling “done” and we got him settled onto our bed while we waited. The duty nurse called, I explained our situation, and he said that he’d open up the clinic and meet us there.

When we stood Dustin up, he began vomiting again and was quite certain that he couldn’t make it all the way to the 1st level. I called the duty nurse back and he was apologetic, but said unless it was an emergency that he could not come to our stateroom. Fair enough.

We got Dustin to a “done” state again; picked up the trashcan we’d been using and made our way down to level 1. Funny how many people are willing to enter an elevator with a child whose parents are holding a bucket to his face. We got to level one with no problems.

The nurse was very kind, asked Dustin’s symptoms, and casually mentioned that the only thing he could offer was a shot. He worked this fact into every other sentence, expecting, we think, that if Dustin wasn’t really very sick, we’d decline the shot. Dustin was feeling so lousy he didn’t blink at that, took the shot like a man, and was very happy to be tucked back into bed a few minutes later.

He fell asleep quickly and with no further problem. Dustin was in the big bed and I decided that I’d prefer the small, slightly stinky bed than risk being vomited on in the dead of night. And so, we all settled down to sleep.

 

[dicar123]

December 22- Disembarkation

We woke in the cold and dark to find we were already in port and that Dustin had slept soundly. We checked our final stateroom account and saw that there was no charge for the trip to the medical clinic. We woke Dustin up so he could sit awhile and decide how he felt while Ed and I tried to decide whether we should try to get him to eat something.

Given that we needed to leave the ship, go through Customs, pick up a rental car and drive an hour before arriving at our hotel, we weren’t at all sure if feeding him was a good idea. Dustin said that he felt better, but not great. We thought maybe just some toast would be good.

I was hoping against hope that this was not a virus, but the combined effect of seawater, a rich dinner, dessert and an entire bottle of sour spray stuff. We still had 5 days of vacation yet.

We were a much more subdued group at breakfast than we had been the night before. Ed and I ordered scrambled eggs and bacon and requested toast for Dustin. I was served my breakfast, took one look at the eggs and my stomach started to churn. The eggs were wet looking!

Within seconds of the plates being set down, Dustin declared that the smell of food was making his tummy feel worse. I rushed us both out of the room, leaving Ed to say our goodbyes. We arranged to meet by Dustin’s favorite porthole.

We waited there just a little while, Dustin resting in his favorite place on board. He wasn’t feeling well, but it was an awful nice, peaceful way to end things. Ed found us and wondered when we’d be able to leave. We waited just a few more minutes there before Ed went to check and found the doors open.

We walked off the boat, not as sad as we might have been if our vacation had been ending. We found a porter, gathered our bags, and walked through Customs. We had no problems at all, made our way to the Hertz shuttle and were gone.

 

[dicar123]

Was Dustin really sick? How was Universal? Did they continue to be the magic sunshine people?

All those questions and more will be answered, my friends, over on The Dark Side (the DIS Universal Board). I'll post a link to it here.

Final, very profound, thoughts and conclusions will follow sometime today I expect.