Trekeo

For the past year, Stephanie has been planning a birthday cruise with our oldest daughter, Mariah.  Mariah celebrates her 16th birthday this week.  To say this cruise is a BIG deal is an understatement.

Friday we had a bon voyage / birthday party for Mariah.

Saturday night Steph called me from Orlando.  She was upset.  I can’t find my purse.  It has my ID and passports.  I think it was stolen.  I’m not sure they will let us on the ship tomorrow.

What took place from 11:00PM Saturday night to 4:00PM Sunday afternoon was amazing.

It’s all explained in the video.  Grab some popcorn and settle in.

Stolen Passports and the Kindness of Strangers from longyear on Vimeo.

For a complete play-by-play (the DIS posts) of this beautiful mess, click here.

Thanks to the Marriott Orlando Airport hotel for incredible customer service.

Check out The Perfect Gift, the biz run by Shirley and Norm.  They are amazing.

To book your next cruise, call Kelsie or John at Dreams Unlimited.  You will not be disappointed.

I’m probably forgetting to thank somebody.  If you were any part of this little miracle, THANK YOU!

by Stephanie

At our house we are referring to 2009 as the year of Disney due to the number of Disney trips we have planned this year.

January 09:  Scot and I traveled to Walt Disney World so that Scot could run his first marathon, the Walt Disney World Marathon. We spent the week following the race touring the parks. It was a nice change of pace for us to visit WDW during the cooler and slower winter months. We experienced wearing jeans and a coat there for the first time.

For a video review of Scot’s experience with the Walt Disney World Marathon, click here.

June 09:  The whole family (Scot, Stephanie, Mariah and Madison) will be vacationing in Walt Disney World for two weeks in the heat and crowds, but don’t fear. I will have a plan to avoid the heat and crowds as much as possible. We will also have a few friends join us along the way.

Above: A June 2006 family vacation at Walt Disney World.

September 09:  Mariah and I will be heading back to Florida for a week to celebrate Mariah’s Sweet 16 Birthday! Plans include a four day cruise to the Bahamas on the Disney Wonder and visiting one of the Disney parks on Mariah’s 16th birthday. Mariah will get FREE admission on her birthday as part of Disney’s What Will You Celebrate campaign. If you are counting, I will be the only one going on all these trips (yea, me!) so I actually bought an Annual Pass this year. I guess it pays to be the vacation planner.

Scot and I have made plans to take each of the girls on trips to celebrate a couple milestones in their lives. I will take the girls on a trip to celebrate their 16th birthdays. Scot will take them on a trip to celebrate their high school graduation. They get to choose what we will do on these trips within reason and budgetary constraints. Mariah’s 16th birthday is the the first of these trips.

Mariah chose to go on her first cruise and I was able to find a decent deal on the four day Disney Wonder. We will visit Nassau, Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island) and have a day at sea. We are both very excited. I can’t wait to introduce my daughter to cruising and I know she will love the Disney touches. They have some great production shows, fireworks, animation classes, movies, etc.

Above: The Disney Wonder in Nassau during crew drills.

As you can see, it will truly be a year of Disney for us. Is there such a thing as too much Disney? Stick around to find out. We will be loading Trekeo with lots of trip reports and video reviews. I hope you explore Disney with us.

For a video review of our experience with Barefoot Sailing, click here.

On our October 2008 Sky cruise we stopped in Freeport and Nassau. We did a Sail & Snorkel Cruise with Sand Dollar Cruises in Freeport on a catamaran. We opted for snorkeling again in Nassau, but this time aboard a sailboat. We booked the All Day Island Cruise with Barefoot Sailing Cruises.

Our day in Nassau was rather gloomy with gray skies and choppy seas, but the rain held off for most of the day. Once at the dock we met up with our captain and mate and after handing over our shoes (they take Barefoot Sailing seriously) we boarded our vessel for the day, Riding High, a sailboat along with a dozen others. It was a full boat.

Due to the weather the Captain changed the itinerary for the day to give us the best day possible given the conditions. He was able to find us a reef area to snorkel that was protected form the wind. We enjoyed our time snorkeling and saw 3 stingrays, two lionfish, a sea cucumber, a starfish and an eel. Not bad.

The boat was anchored off the shore in the area in the two pictures below. We swam towards the shore and then followed the shore line down a ways snorkeling. It was a little work to get to the reef, but it was nice to be in this protected area where the water was calm.

Lunch was provided on the boat. While we were snorkeling the Captain and First Mate prepared the food. Obviously some of the work was done ahead of time, but they fired up the grill on the boat and threw down some delicious food. It really was an amazing lunch with BBQ chicken, ribs, beans, etc. After lunch those that wanted headed back for more snorkeling. Scot and I were the last ones back to the boat at the end of the day trying to get every last second in the water that we could.

We really enjoyed the day in Nassau with Barefoot Sailing, but we have to say we enjoyed our morning with Captain Tony of Sand Dollar Cruises in Freeport even more. Why?

1. Well, we really liked the catamaran. It was much roomier. She was a beautiful boat.

2. The weather was better which was an unfair advantage, but truthfully factored into our enjoyment.

3. The reef in Nassau was good, but the reef in Freeport was incredible. We saw more fish there than we did snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

4. Captain Tony was a stand up guy to take us out even though we were his only customers that morning. The folks at Barefoot Sailing told us he was crazy and he lost money doing that. I’m sure that is true, but what Tony gained was two loyal supporters who have been singing his praises ever since.

For a video review of our morning Sail & Snorkel with Sand Dollar Cruises, click here.

Scot and I were wanting to do some snorkeling while we were in Freeport. I had heard good things about Captain Tony and Sand Dollar Cruises on www.cruisecritic.com so we decided to give him a try and booked a 3 hour snorkel and sail cruise for the morning we were in Freeport. We are so glad we did. It was a highlight of our cruise.

We got off the ship in Freeport and caught a shared van ride into Port Lucaya. The cost was $5 per person and the ride was 15 minutes or so. The van driver got us headed in the right direction to meet Captain Tony in front of the Port Lucaya Hotel and Yacht Club. Captain Tony was waiting for us and walked us down to the Sand Dollar.

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The Carnival Imagination just came out of dry dock and she looks great. Carnival is updating their Fantasy class ships and the Carnival Imagination is the second ship to undergo the complete “Evolutions of Fun” upgrade. John Heald, Carnival’s Senior Cruise Director, shares some details and pictures on his blog. I’d love to spend an afternoon in the Serenity Adults-Only Retreat area with a great book and Scot. Ahh.

DISEMBARKATION: Our flight was not leaving Miami until 2:45pm so we enjoyed Freestyle Disembarkation. We chose the Express Walk Off Program. With this option you are free to disembark at anytime after the ship is cleared up until they call for all guests to disembark. You must carry off all your luggage to participate in this program.

So on our final morning we got up at 7:45am, showered and then headed to breakfast. After breakfast we headed back to the cabin and packed. We were out of our cabin by 9:30am so that our cabin steward would have access to the room to prepare it for the next guests. We were given a list of things we could do while we waited to disembark. We planned to head to the Bliss Lounge, but we couldn’t even exit the elevator on deck 7 because of throngs of people waiting to get off the ship. We headed away from the crowds and sat in some window seats and read until they made they final call to disembark. We walked right off the ship at 10:30am without having to fight the crowds. There was a bit of a line at immigration, but I think we spent less than 10 minutes waiting.

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Dining: We tried to get reservations at La Cucina again, but they were booked. We were going to just go to Summer Palace, but thought we would walk up to La Cucina and give it a shot. The screens around the ship that tell you how full restaurants are showed availability. We walked up and were seated. We ordered a pizza both nights we ate there and they were awesome. I had the manicotti it was good. Dessert was good, cheesecake and a macadamia nut ice cream dish.

Activities: I had hoped to spend the day at the spa, but I had had a little too much sun. The thought of heated tile loungers and pain brought pain to mind rather than relaxation. Instead, we found a quiet, shady spot on a deck with comfy loungers. We spent most of the day reading and napping. Perfect.

Entertainment: Thursday evening we went to see the show Sharkbait: Comedy action juggling.  We have really never seen a juggling show we liked until now. These guys were awesome. Very high energy and entertaining. Later in the evening we headed to the Spinnaker Lounge for the Star Seeker Guest Talent Show. There were some very talented guests on the cruise. It was followed by The Second City: Adult Improv show and the Quest Game.

Dining: Tuesday morning we ordered room service for breakfast so that we could get an earlier start to our day in Cozumel. Lunch was enjoyed at Nachi Cocom, but we were back on the ship in time for dinner at Mambo’s. We shared the Il Poppo. We were disappointed in this. This presentation was nice, but the meat was tough. Scot asked if he could also get shrimp with our dinner and was told no. The waiter was grumpy. Dessert was disappointing. Scot had the churros and I had the cream puff.

Wednesday morning we headed to the buffet for breakfast and weren’t disappointed. Lunch was at Rum Point Beach. We went to Indigo for dinner. Dinner was ok and service was good. We had the beef and a Creole dish.

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DINING: We ate at the Garden Cafe buffet for breakfast. They had a great selection. The French toast was wonderful. A few tips: It seemed to get more crowded each day. If the lines are too long you can walk all the way to the back and head to the Great Outdoors. They don’t have as big of a selection, but you can find most things out there without the wait. They even have an omelet station there. Also, seating can be difficult to find. Head to La Cucina it is open for seating. It is quiet and cool inside there and empty most of the time.

We dined at The Summer Palace for lunch. The food and service were great.

For dinner we had made reservations for La Cucina, the Italian restaurant. We had a table for two by the window. I had the Land and Sea. It was wonderful. I can’t remember what Scot had. We had Tiramisu for dessert. It was good.

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BACKGROUND INFO: Scot and I took our first cruise in the fall of 2005 on the Disney Wonder. It was a four day cruise to the Bahamas. I immediately fell in love with cruising. Scot enjoys it and is certainly a willing participate, but doesn’t think of cruising constantly like I do;) Our second cruise was on the Fascination in November 2006. Another four day cruise. This time we visited Key West and Cozumel.

We knew we wanted to cruise again this fall and started checking out our options. We wanted to sail out of Miami and Scot was only willing to be gone one Sunday. I was hoping to try our first week long cruise, but couldn’t find anything that would put us gone only one Sunday and fit our budget. We decided on a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Pearl October 14 – 19, 2007. I was very excited about the concept of Freestyle cruising. We were taking this cruise to spend time as a couple and were looking forward to tables for two at dinner every night. We booked through an online travel agency.

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