Welcome to the YaYa's: YYotC at Castaway Cay Part 2

[DISNEYFANRI]

Quick hi......not feeling very well today......very very stressed.

 

[Poohnatic]

Paula, sounds like you need Calgon, a good book and an iPod loaded with your favorite songs.



Suzanne

 

[isyne4u]

I have to share...check this thread out. My letter.

 

[Towncrier]

John,
How is your son liking YSU?

He likes it better and better each and every time we talk to him. I believe that his exact words are "College is AWESOME!!!". Things could not be going any better.

My only beef with him is that he signed up and paid $100 for a parking permit for this semester even though he knew that he would not be able to have the car that he and his sister share. Not only has he NOT had a car during the fall semester, but the permit is for a lot that is on the other side of campus. Seems that the parking people didn't realize that he relocated from Kilcawley House to Cafaro House. So he didn't get that fixed and, by the time that he had buyer's remorse and decided to try to get his money back, it was past the deadline. Oh well. Perhaps he learned a valuable lesson.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Hook up? You mean I'm supposed to do something with my WWTBAM button panel other than leaving it on the kitchen counter for the next year or so?

I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it. Sue has suggested that I build (ha ha) a shadow box to hold the button panel and a set of my WWTBAM buttons. Yeah. Right. I'll get to that just as soon as I possibly can.

Ooooh I LIKE that idea!

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Hi Ya Yas!

Pam, you are here!

TC, I'm sure he will be hearing about that "investment" a few more times.

Tara, what a wonderful letter.

Paula, sorry you are having one of those days. I keep the Serenity Prayer hanging right where I can see it here at work. At home, they all hide!

Kimmar, cute, you are cute!

Alan, hope they are having a grat field trip as you get to stay behind and work. I love going to the zoo. Gave me a fond moment for a bit here.

 

[alabamaalan]

Well I have finally gotten my photos for the cruise online. They are at snapfish so you will not be able to see them if you are not registered.

However, if any of you want to test and not register, PM me your email address and I will share it to you specifically to see if it works that way. I haven't tested that yet.


Here is Day 1

We spent Saturday night at McDill AFB in Tampa. My friend Daniel is active duty Air Force and had just come back from a few months in Bahrain the week we left.

Day 2 was a day at sea.

We participated in a few games, leisurely explored the ship, enjoyed some great food (as we did all week ) and had our first formal night.

 

[helenabear]

Hi y'all! Tired today, but managed to get out to church before the horrible storms started here.

You know Tara, they do say duct tape fixes everything. dang those child endangerment laws That was a sweet letter you got from your student though :

A fair in Feb? Eh... we'd have to see. I am not sure what my travel plans will be for a while in all honesty. This is the last trip I think we'll make for a while.

Paula I hope things look up for you soon... go hug that kitty and see if that helps you out!

John, sorry that James lost so much money on parking. They have a tendency to rip us off here too. The parking lot I could have gotten in college was more than half the distance to my house.

Hey Lily, I'm curious... how many days are you down to? We haven't done a countdown for you in a while

Horrid rain here supposedly flooding some parts.

 

[alabamaalan]

Okay, we are up to Day 3 where we actually started going places.


This was where we took a risk that backfired but I have no regrets. We knew we did not want to book excursions through the cruise line as they are often overcrowded and definitely overpriced. Of course, to each his own, and many of the passengers loved the official excursions and they did not have to be concerned with getting back to tender on time, etc. (But we never had any difficulties)

Most of the stingray excursions in Grand Cayman also involved a snorkling stop. As a blind woman, Mrs. AA wasn't real keen on that and we found a private charter that would go anywhere we were interested.

So we chose to go to the stingray sandbar, but instead of snorkling we went to a place called Starfish point. The other boats would not be able to get in the shallow area. It was not all that exciting, but we did find 3 live starfish which is not anything I ever expected to do, and Rebecca really enjoyed it.

Then we anchored off Rum Beach and swam to the shore where we used their facilities (resteraunt/hammocks, etc) and then back to the dock.

The part that backfired was when we booked the boat assuming we would be able to pick up at least one more couple to keep the price better. As it turns out, we had to split the cost among both couples. It was a lot more expensive than if we had booked one of the private stingray excursions (but we would not have done the starfish point or rum beach) but it was not that much more than the Carnival guests paid for their outing so no harm done.

I can not begin to describe how much fun it was to interact with and feed the stingrays. Our little boat passed most of the others on the way out and we had all the attention we could want. Our guide was very friendly, knowledgeable and laid back

We all got to feed and hold the stingrays and felt them swimming around us. The water was just beautiful!! It is hard to believe you are on a sandbar out in the middle of nowhere.

Neil (the guide) loaned me his mask and snorkle and I made my first attempt at using one. I see now how you can get hooked on that. It was so much fun to watch them "fly" underwater with a clearer vision.

This was probably our favorite of all the excursions.

 

[Towncrier]

John, sorry that James lost so much money on parking.

He had several opportunities to get his money back. I guess he was too busy having fun at college. Oh well. It's only money.

 

[alabamaalan]

Keep saying that for another 4 years, right?


Speaking of spending money...


On Day 4 we went to Cozumel

We did not have anything specific planned here, so we just tendered and grabbed a taxi. Michelle had done research and asked to be taken to Palmar Estates. A gentleman in charge directed us to a driver and gave him the destination but the cabbie took us to Paradise Beach instead.

Since that was further than we needed to go we went ahead and asked him to take us to Mr. Sanchos a bit further up the road. (We had a list and review of the resort beaches and wanted something a little less crowded and fun than PB which I hear is great)


The resort was great! The beaches were not sandy white due to the hurricane damage but we almost had it all to ourselves for awhile. It never got anywhere close to crowded though.

Juan introduced himself to us when we arrived. He brought us food and drinks, delivered snorkle gear when I rented some (It was pretty cool as I saw more fish than I expected to), and generally took great care of us.

We did not shop in town as we originally planned to, but they were more than happy to accept our money there There were several shops there where we purchased silver necklaces and some other souveniers.

We enjoyed the pool and the beach there.

 

[alabamaalan]

Well I'm up to Day 5 in Belize

We were in Central America and it was on the 25th Anniversary of Belize's independance from England. They were originally "British Honduras"

Michelle enjoyed the snorkling she tried in Conzumel so much that she and Daniel booked an excursion to swim with stingrays and nurse sharks. They enjoyed their day on an island off the coast. I have a pic of a small children's parade that they witnessed.

Rebecca and I participated in the main excursion of Belize - cave tubing!

We absolutely loved the outfitters that we chose to book through. They took great care of us every step of the way and we could see a big difference with other groups.

We took a bus trip to our starting point. We tried the cashew wine along the way which was very fruity.

We grabbed our tubes and took a healthy walk through the rain forest. As we walked through a bit of a cave we scared up a few bats.

We traveled a bit further than some other groups and floated through 2 caves instead of one. We all linked together in groups of 8 and each group had a guide that pulled them and keep them in the deeper water.

We stopped for lunch at "Cheers" (Where nobody gives a damn about you - according to our guide) and had the national dish of chicken, beans and rice cooked in coconut milk.

As we went in, I heard the group Alabama singing "Mountain Music" on the radio so I knew I was in the right place.

Rebecca enjoyed this one more than I expected her to since it was so visual, so we both had a great time.

And with that, I think I'm done until tomorrow when I will post the last port and another day at sea.

 

[CdnDisneyNut]

Alan

Great pictures

 

[helenabear]

John, you are so right! It is only money... could have been worse too!

Great pics there Alan!

Howdy Mikey!

We had a horrid storm blow through. Stupidly they didn't bother to sound the sirens until AFTER the dangerous part of the storm passed. That was helpful We had hail about the size of an inch or so from what we saw. Nice weather here... poor Gwenie was scared to death. Not fun for her birthday

 

[dizneenut]

Great pics, Alan.

Paula, hope you feel better soon.

Kimmar,

John, sorry James lost $.

Amanda, sounds like some fun times for you.

Elaine, no bad storms here, thankfully. Just rain so far. And the temps have dropped.

Hi Pam! Good to see ya girl!!

Hi Mike!

Tara, sweet letter.

Suzanne, we have a new Kohl's opening right around the corner from me tomorrow. I'm not sure if that is good or bad, though.

Hi Lily! Crazy weather, huh?

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Evenin' Ya Yas!

I'm just home and turned on radio "Delilah" is on broadcasting from WDW on the kickoff of the Year of a Million Dreams. How joyful it was to hear about the family that won the kickoff. I think she did a nice job broadcasting it. My Mom said part of it was on TV. I missed that. Wonder how often it will be repeated.

Alan, haven't checked out the pics yet, but your story is great. Sounds like a fun thing for sure!

Off to figure out what direction to turn next...

 

[CrazyBoutDisney]

As we went in, I heard the group Alabama singing "Mountain Music" on the radio so I knew I was in the right place.

Thank goodness it wasn't "Dueling Banjos" from Deliverance!

 

[dizneenut]

Morning!

Beth. Good to see you pop in. Hope things have slowed down for you some.

Lily, wow, I haven't heard Delilah in a long time. I should start listening again. I loved her show.

Heading to our new Kohl's this morning. Maybe they'll have some Grand Opening specials. They did send us a card worth $10 off our shopping trip!!

 

[isyne4u]

morning!!!

 

[Poohnatic]

Howdy!

Sherry, I didn't get a card and we've got one opening today, too! I did get accosted at their front door to open a credit card, though!

Tara, loved that letter!

Lainey, whats the point of the warning system if they don't use it until halfway through?

Hi Mikey! I am assuming that's CdnDisneynut

Alan, great trip report-now I need to go look at those pictures-I'm pretty sure I'm signed up at Snapfish-at least I get emails from them that imply that I am, lol.

Lily, cool to hear that broadcast.

John, sounds to me that mr James is far too busy at school to trifle with things like getting his money back!

Paula, better day today, I hope!

Eeek! Gotta jet!

Suzanne