Disney Fantasy Cruise 2013: Costa Maya

Our activity on October 29 was a trip to the Chacchoben Maya ruins.  We were a little concerned when we received our event tickets because our tour start and stop times were outside the times that the cruise ship was scheduled to be in port.  Since we booked the excursion through the Disney cruise lines we chose to let them do the worrying and we'd just do the enjoying.

Upon arrival in Costa Maya, we boarded our tour bus and spent an hour bus ride to the ruins.  The bus was comfortable and seeing parts of Mexico outside the tourist area was interesting.  Our guide was fairly knowledgeable, especially about the plants in the area.

We were impressed with the Chacchoben Ruins.  It was pretty amazing to take a step back in time and see, up close, structures that were built thousands of years ago.  A tropical rain storm in the rain forest seemed like the perfect addition to our adventure.  It dampened our clothes, not our spirits.  We dried quickly and enjoyed the rest of our day.  We even found great souvenirs at the Chacchoben market.  I was especially thrilled with the hand made hammock chairs we bought; one for us and one for Mom and Dad.

The time of human sacrifice is long gone despite what Rob and the kids seem to think.

S11 took along some teeth to bury at the ruins.  He hopes that years from now archeologists will be confused when they find them.

This is a building site that has yet to be restored.

Our return bus trip got us to the pier with very little time to spare.  All the shops were closed and we were one of the last groups to go aboard before the ship sailed again. 

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We ordered room service and enjoyed a snack as we dressed for the evening show of Wishes. 

Disney Fantasy Cruise 2013: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

We began our day on Monday, October 28, with an elegant breakfast buffet in The Enchanted Garden restaurant.  The food was very similar to that in Cabanas but we liked the setting better.  Because there were only four of us, we got to sit in a beautiful garden booth.  M9 particularly enjoyed the napkins (hats?).

After breakfast we were taken ashore in shuttle boats.  Our activity today was a trip to Dolphin Discovery, where we paid visit to the turtle farm and had a wonderful dolphin adventure.

A speedy bus ride took us to our Grand Cayman destination.  Our driver was full of information about the Cayman Islands.  His knowledge helped distract us from the traffic around us.  We arrived safely at Dolphin Discovery. We all got the opportunity to hold green sea turtles.  It was quite an experience!

After the turtle farm we crossed the street for our dolphin adventure.  Because we all participated there was no one to take pictures.  The paid photographs would have cost over $300.  We hope our memories of the dolphins will be enough. 

We were all outfitted in life jackets and sent into the dolphin pool where we met our trainer and dolphin.  Taking turns with the others in our group, we were each given the opportunity to interact with the dolphin.  In addition to touching the dolphin and offering him kisses, we got to do a push and ride.  For the push, we held a boogie board and swam out into the pool. The trainer then sent the dolphin to push us through the water by putting it's nose on the bottom of our foot.  The key was to lock your knees and hang on.  It was kind of shocking to feel a dolphin nose on your foot.  The surprise made M9 call for me until the push began and she was so pleased by the feeling of moving swiftly through the water and forgot to be afraid.  After the push we got to ride the dolphin.  We held onto it's flippers while it swam backwards towing us along.  We were mixed about which part of the dolphin experience we liked the best but we all agreed that it was a pretty amazing actitivy to participate in. 

This is how they always serve ketchup on the Disney Fantasy.

We returned to the ship, tired but happy.

Disney Fantasy Cruise 2013: Day at Sea

Sunday brought a day at sea.  Rob and I woke early and went to the morning worship service onboard.  While it was advertised as an interdenominational religious service it had a clearly an evangelical Christian flavor.  The service was held in The Overlook which is probably the highest public place on the ship which means it has an amazing view.

After the service we had breakfast and returned to the staterooms to wake our lazy children.  As they kept reminding us, it was their vacation too and they really like to sleep in.  Once they were awake they were all eager to get topside to the pool and lunch. 

 Rob and I attended a mixology class in the afternoon.  We learned to make six mixed drinks from Jerry the Irish bartender in the Skyline Lounge. 

 The afternoon continued with spa sessions for Halley and Kady and a nap for me.  The show for the evening was Aladdin.  Dinner was formal.  We all enjoyed getting dressed up and stepping out to the Enchanted Garden.

When we returned to the cabins a new friend was waiting for us courtesy of Marissa, our stateroom attendant.

The Wonderful World of a Disney Cruise: Fish Extenders and FE Gifts

Back in February Rob took a job that allowed him to work from home most of the time. He travels about one week a month. The rest of the time he enjoys this office space.

Not bad, right?   Lots of light, a great view and his own gym.  

In additon to the office, he got a nice signing bonus. Since he'd gotten so many benefits from the job, he decided that the entire family should enjoy the bonus.  M9 immediately suggested that a Disney cruise wuld be fun for the whole family.  Everyone quickly agreed to her brilliant plan. We've spent the last few months planning that adventure.

Rob and I have taken a cruise before. You pick your date, buy your tickets, get on the boat ship. Not so with a Disney Cruise. There is planning. Not just planning, strategizing, to be done. There are message boards, websites and books devoted to getting the most out of your cruise. There are Facebook groups dedicated to each and every aspect of the Disney Cruise. You can even "meet" your fellow shipmates before you see the ship.

One of the Disney cruise extras that I learned about are fish extenders (aka FE) and FE gifts. The idea here is similar to that of Christmas stockings. You hang these fish extenders on hooks (shaped like fish on some of the Disney ships) outside your cabin door. Other guests on your cruise bring gifts to put in your fish extenders and you bring gifts to put in their fish extenders. Fun, right?! As with all things Disney, the idea is to add to the magic. The trick is not to add to the stress.

Keeping the magic vs. stress balance in mind, I made our fish extenders and some of our FE gifts. I'm pretty pleased with all of it.

Here are the fish extenders.  Since we'll be occupying two cabins I made two, each with three pockets.  One pocket for each family member.

The FE gifts were a little more challenging to plan.  On our cruise there are three FE groups.  Each group has about 25 cabins included in their exchange.  Our group includes 24 other cabins, 70 people total.  That's a lot of gifting.  I would rather spend my vacation budget on dolphin swims and drinks by the pool.  Sorry fellow FE groupies but it's the truth.  However, I do like to make magic so here's what my creative brain, aided by Amazon, Google and Pinterest came up with for our FE gifts.

Using some super cute Mickey shaped cookie cutters, ribbon, and star covered wire we made Christmas ornaments for each cabin. 

For the kids in our group, we made Mickey hand wands for the boys.  Shane says they are butt slappers.  He's probably right.  That's probably what they are and what they will be used for.  At least, they are Mickey hand butt slappers.  For the girls, we made fairy wands.  There is one teen age boy in our FE group.  He'll be getting a duct tape wallet, complete with a Mickey sticker, of course.

I'll try to remember to share pictures of our door magnets when we get back.  That's another bit of Disney magic that I have enjoyed preparing.