Today marks Day 5 of our Disney cruise and we were docked at the port of Cozumel for the day.  At this port we were actually docked for a full day unlike the other odd hours we spent at the other ports.  The ship was in Cozumel from 7:30am to 5:30pm.  With that being said we didn't step foot outside the ship…at all!!  We have been to Cozumel many times and there was nothing we really wanted to do there or any shopping to do so we decided that we would spend the day enjoying the ship while the 3,000 other people were OFF it. :)  

We slept in until 8:30am and then got up and ready to start the day.  We had breakfast in the Enchanted Garden at the buffet.  We had a fun server from England for breakfast.  She had Lara laughing and she is NOT a morning person, especially before her 8 cups of coffee, LOL.  They have quite a bit to choose from on the buffet and if you don't want anything they have you can just order something and they will make it for you.  Feel spoiled yet?  I sure feel spoiled.  I think I need my own cruise line staff at home to make towel animals at turn down service and take care of the cleaning, cooking, and fresh laundry.  Ha….if only huh?

After breakfast we hit up deck 11 which until now was better known as the sardine can of the ship because there are usually so many people packed up there that just walking through takes a serious map.  Today, there were hardly any people at all.  We rode the Aquaduck water roller coaster several times and just walked on each time…no line!!  The pool had less than 5 people in it so we got to swim and hang out on the pool deck and almost felt like we had a private deck to ourselves.  We watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame on the big screen while enjoying the cool water and even ordered up a refreshing frozen drink of the adult kind. Yum!  It wasn't until we looked for the time that we realized we were downing Mudslides at just 11am.  LOL!  I am sure the other people on the deck with us must have thought we were serious drunkheads to be drinking while breakfast was still out. :)  

After we had enough fun in the sun we hobbled up 2 more decks to the Goofy Sports Area and played a competitive game of Mini Golf and the course was so COOL!  We took pics at each hole.  The course was just so neat.  They had all kinds of neat themes for each one.  Cristian scored 2 hole-in-one's but sadly he was the first loser.  :)  I beat the both of them by 1 measly point!  Ha…they had 25 and I had 24.  That's right…who is the mini golf champion?  ME!  Cristian really had a blast!  His Uncle Norman sure has sparked a golf interest in him.  He LOVES playing mini golf and wants to go to a real course.  He is so good at it too.  He has that swing and aim down!  

At 1pm today Cristian had an appointment at the Pirate's League on deck 5!  He has done this one before in Disney World where they turn him into the pirate of choice complete with the hat/wig, bandana, sword, costume, and makeup!  Cristian picked the Jack Sparrow costume, of course, and chose the makeup of blackbeard which basically was 2 black eyes and a scruffy beard shadow.  His bandana had an earring and an eye patch.  He looked SO cute!!!  On the way out of the Pirate's League we decided to stop at a couple of the photography areas and have our pictures taken.  We let them do shots of Cristian alone and then the three of us together.  I didn't realize until this evening just how many times my son must have watched the movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean".  Why today you ask?  Well…let's just say that Cristian can impersonate Jack Sparrow SO well that a group of people having their family picture taken after us thought he was THE COOLEST thing and looked so authentic with his poses and such that they wanted Cristian in the pictures with their family so he posed with complete strangers…LOL.  He really looked like Jack Sparrow the way he was walking and even the gestures.  That was the moment where Lara said…"Wow…he really has this character down to an art.  Just how many times has he seen this movie?" LOL…He is such a ham and of course a pirate at heart.  I don't think he will ever truly outgrow pirates.  He has LOVED pirate anything since he was 2.  I think it is adorable.

Onward in our pirate adventure we also got to sneak some time with Pirate Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Captain Hook, and Mr. Smee!  Cristian was DYING to meet Jack Sparrow but sadly that line was so long that it closed after 10 minutes of being open.  The people getting in line for that as early as they did made it feel like Black Friday in the middle of the ocean.  Crazy crazy crazy…He is supposed to be at Castaway Cay on Friday and available for meet & greets so I guess we will try our luck then.  Cristian loved seeing the characters except for Minnie.  For some reason he gets all red and embarrassed near her because she always tries to give him a kiss on the head.  I think it is funny. :)

Since the ship was practically empty today we walked around the ship and took pictures of some of the main lounges, clubs, and main areas.  We were able to take pictures with NO ONE in the way because it was that empty!!!  We got some fun pictures and since there was no one there to laugh at our silly butts - we were extra silly!  :)  At 4:30 we headed to the theater and we watched THE AVENGERS in 3D and it was flipping AWESOME!!!!!  The surround sound and picture were impressive!!  We have been wanting to go to the movies to see this and I am glad we didn't because now we got to see it for free!  Hell yes!!!  

Dinner tonight was at the Animator's Palate and it was PIRATE THEMED!!  Even the servers were all decked out in costume.  Cristian got a picture with both our servers, Jayson and Nicole, as well as a server that just loves Cristian and posed with him outside the restaurant and the head server Liam!  Cristian has also made friends with this man and his 2 teenage daughters that sit near us at each of our restaurants.  He is a sweet man and his daughters being the ages they are at just up and ditch him each night after dinner.  Cristian wanted a picture with them and so they posed with him.  That is one thing that I like about dining in restaurants on cruises - you get to meet interesting people.  It sure makes it fun. :)  This was the best menu EVER.  They had 4 appetizers to pick from and I loved them all so we ordered one of each and Lara and I split them.  They had this one appetizer that was sliced pineapple with a mango glaze and a banana rolled in coconut that was just the yummiest appetizer to date.  They also had pot stickers, crab cake, and a crab, shrimp, and smoked salmon couscous patty.  I wasn't crazy about the couscous one but the others were delish!!!  Lara and I both had the grilled Mahi Mahi for the main course and conch chowder for the soup.  Dessert - we both ordered the sweet temptations which was a mini dessert of a fruit tart, rum cake, fruit cobbler.  It was SOOOO good!  

Tonight we had a Pirate show, Pirate deck party, and fireworks!!!!  What a great way to end the night.  :)  A little sad that in 2 days our cruise will be over.  But, I am looking forward to being away from rocking seas!  We seem to have had rocky rocky waters the last several days and since we are on Deck 2, we might as well be on the waves themselves.  Ha.  But, it is all good.  :)

Tomorrow is a sea day.  Woot!  Woot!

Cheers,

M E

Day 4 of our cruise was in Costa Maya!  Disney has really odd hours at these ports.  We were in Costa Maya from 12:45 to 5:30.  Definitely not the best times but I guess being Disney they can get away with that and still fill a ship.  The amount of madness on a Disney cruise ship is mind blowing.  It is like being in the middle of Disney World during peak season.  There are characters in the lobby and around the area and long lines of kids waiting to meet them.  There are tired, hungry, and over stimulated kids running around miserable and the complete obnoxious brats that end up somehow right beside you no matter what deck you seem to migrate to!  LOL!  I definitely am having a great time but don't believe I would choose Disney again - not unless i had small children that would make it worth the extra hassle and stress :)

Now - back to the fun stuff!  For breakfast Lara and I had a vegetarian omelett which I really love.  I have had it each morning.  Here is a picture:

We did a really cool excursion in Costa Maya today.  We didn't spend any time at all in port, which is fine with us since it is a man made port just for tourism and not authentic in any way, because our excursion went the entire time we were in Costa Maya.  We did this excursion called, "Mayan Through the Ages".  We took a bus about 45 minutes out into a small village where a small amount of locals live and got to spend several hours learning about the modern Mayan culture, medicines, their way of life, etc…we toured their village and then the husband and wife in the village cooked us an authentic lunch in the ground!  The chicken they made cooked underground for several hours and it was SO tender and moist.  They made corn tortillas by hand and each one was perfectly rounded and shaped.  We learned all kinds of neat things.  It takes the woman in the village about 4 hours to cook tortillas for her family.  They use a fire with wood over it to cook on because using a gas stove could take a couple of hours to cook food and the cost of gas is too expensive.  The average Mayan family has anywhere from 5 to 10 kids so you can just imagine how long it takes her to do laundry each day by hand.  For special occasions they cook underground which is such a neat concept.  There is a large hole in the ground surrounded by limestone rock which has to be changed every 3 months  They put the food in a cooking pot and then put that in the ground with wood, rocks, and coal around it.  It is then covered with banana leaves and dirt and left for hours to cook.  Once it is ready they use a shovel to remove the dirt and then lift the banana leaves off the area and remove the pot.  The banana leaves also add flavor to what is being cooked.  This is how they cooked the chicken for our lunch.  Lunch was SUPER YUMMY!!!  Cristian really enjoyed it all.

We also saw how they make strong threads to make their own rope for products that they handmade such as hammocks.  It is quite the process!  They have to use an instrument to scrape off everything off the specific leaf and what is left looks like the mane of a horse and is super strong.  You can tie it together to form rope and use that to make things.  It will take an entire days work to make a small purse out of the material.  The time and cost to make things homemade like that are too great as the commercial business of plastic and cheaper products make it difficult for the villagers to sell their authentic pieces.

We stopped by the Mayan temple that is in this village and saw a small Mayan ruin.  The temple was built for their god of fertility.  Most of the Mayans no longer believe in many gods but rather just one god overall but there are still classic Mayans that believe in the god of fertility and the various gods.  The temple was built to worship this god.  

Our cruise guide, Gerardo, was showing us an interesting leaf from a tree on the bus.  He was telling us that the leaf has many uses for the Mayans.  One use of it is to prevent or combat diabetes.  People use the leaf to make tea.  Once the leaf is dried up - it is also used in the same way that the Native Americans use Peyote.  After the leaf is gone if you split the bark you are left with in half you will see that it has a hollow hole in the middle and entire length of it.  This is what they use as a pipe.  

After we got back on the ship we headed to the Walt Disney Theater and watched the musical production they had called "Wishes".  It was pretty good.  They integrated all of the different characters into the show.  It was about 3 high school graduates - twins (girl and boy) and their best friend and them experiencing the magic of Disney for the last time before graduation.  As we were heading back to the cabin to change for dinner we ran into some characters that Cristian just HAD to get a picture with and there were only 5 - 10 people in line so we hopped in.  Just look at that smile:

Dinner tonight was in the Royal Court.  The theme was "Prince & Princess".  I wasn't crazy about any of the appetizers so I skipped them entirely.  They had salmon, goat cheese, blue cheese, and duck on the appetizer menu which are my least favorite things to eat. Lara and I ended up getting the same thing - go figure.  We had a lentil and sausage soup followed by a vegetable lasagna that was the BEST thing ever!!!  Here is a pic:

After dinner we caught Buzz Lightyear with NO line.  Now, that is amazing.  Settled down in the room pretty late and watched the rest of Disney's Up.  Tomorrow is Cozumel and since we are not getting off the ship we will get to spend the day exploring the ship and swimming without the mass mobs of people!  Tomorrow is also PIRATE DAY!!!  Cristian is getting all decked out at the Pirate's League as Jack Sparrow and Lara and I have a themed hat to wear for the festivities.  Dinner will be pirate themed and they will have pirate activities throughout the afternoon.  At 7:45 there will be a Pirate deck party and at 10:30 there will be a fireworks show!!!  It is going to be a lot of fun.

Another pretty cool thing is that they actually have movies in 3D showing here on board in the theater that are STILL in the movie theaters back home!!  Tonight at 11pm they have John Carter and tomorrow they have AVENGERS!!!!  We decided to skip John Carter but are hitting up Avengers at 4:30!!  How awesome!!

Heading to bed and will get to actually sleep in tomorrow!  Yes!

Cheers,

M E

Today we spent the day in Grand Cayman!!  I LOVE this place.  I could easily spend a week here but not on my limited budget.  LOL!  We headed off the ship about 11am. This was the first time that Cristian joined us for an excursion.  We did the Stingray City Sandbar which he really really really enjoyed.  We took a short bus ride to the dock and then boarded the "Emerald Eyes" and headed to the sandbar.  Lara and I were nervous that he would freak out over being in the water with the Stingrays, those of you that have seen Cristian's reaction to a small harmless bug within 10 feet of him will understand this one, but thankfully he really did OK with it all.  He was snorkeling around the Stingrays, pet several, and even helped hold one!  The guy kept trying to get him to hold it by himself but he wasn't that brave so I helped him hold one half and the tour guide held the other, LOL.  That was as good as it was going to get for Cristian.  But, he still had such a great time and it is definitely an experience he will always remember.  The only downside to the excursion is that they no longer allow you to feed the stingrays. :(  There is some new law around that stating that only the tour guides can feed them because they found that the stingrays were getting sick from being overfed.  So - no feeding this time around which Lara and I really enjoyed during our last visit several years ago.  Lara and I both got to hold 2 different stingrays and let me tell you those creatures are soft and silky but they can weigh a ton!  One of the stingrays we held was about 70 pounds.  She was heavy but she was so friendly.  She would just splash water at you, let you hold her and pet her…

Here are some pictures:

We did a little shopping but not much.  There was only one store that we really wanted to go to and as luck would have it we found everything we were looking for right there at Pirate's Grotto.  I love that store!  I bought some rum cake, rum balls, and Lara and I picked out a few yummy sauces - my favorite being the rum sauce.  I know - I sound like an alki don't I?  Funny - I hardly drink but this sauce is SO good.  Cristian is just so sweet with his money.  He bought several things for people while shopping.  He is so thoughtful!  

While on the excursion I had a little mishap.  I was taking off my new flip flops and the wind caught one of them as I was taking it off and tossed it overboard so I was one shoe short of a pair in no time flat.  Luckily, i found a cute pair of flip flops on shore for 7 bucks.  Woohoo!  This sweet lady and her family on the boat with us started chatting with us and she offered to let me use these water shoes she bought at Wal-Mart until I bought some shoes.  I returned them to her this evening.  Now, how nice is that?  I was very thankful to not have to walk on the hot ground with bare feet or better yet - on one foot :)

After hitting up Pirate's Grotto, we took a couple of pictures, and then headed back to the ship for some late lunch.  The restaurants and buffet were closed so we had to settle for the unhealthy crap that is open all the time, blah.  Lara and I had a Panini with Iced Tea and Cristian had chicken tenders and french fries.  I feel like it ALL went right to my hips!  After lunch, we hit the Aquaduck!!  Lara actually did it!!!!  She climbed ALL the way up the stairs and rode the Aquaduck with Cristian.  Now, who says you can't conquer your fears for a wet duck? :)  It takes a picture of you on the way up - can't wait to see what those look like.  I may just have to buy those up for laughs.

After a little bit of water slide action and swimming we headed back to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner.  We hit up the Magic Show at 6:15 and it was pretty funny.  I think that Magic Dave did pretty good although I would love to have been able to catch the adult comedy show.  We just couldn't seem to make the time work out for us.  We also had some portraits done - guess it never hurts to take a few and see what ones turn out.  Cristian used to be such a ham in front of the camera when he was young and now it is a fight to get him to pose and smile - he does this fake smile that looks absolutely ridiculous so getting a decent shot just may take 20 tries - not joking…:(  

Dinner tonight was in the Enchanted Garden.  It was really pretty.  The lights are in the shape of flowers and as you dine they change colors and start to bloom.  It is quite a sight.  The entire environment just makes you feel like you have been whisked away into a magical garden.  Dinner tonight was just OK for me.  There wasn't really anything on the menu tonight that I wanted to eat.  My choices were Sea Bass, Pork, Prime Rib, Scallions, or Chicken Breast.  So I went with Chicken Breast, broccoli, and cauliflower for my main course.  

Appetizer:  Cucumber Roll (Me) & Lobster Ravioli (Lara)

Soup:  Cream of Asparagus

Main Course:  Chicken breast with vegetables (Me) & Sea Bass (Lara)

Dessert:  Banana Foster (Half)

Here are some pictures:

Cristian also met Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Daisy Duck, and Donald Duck today. 

I am feeling completely lost without my scale to be able to weigh in each morning.  As much as I love all the food and variety I can't help but miss my normal routine and food because I know it isn't packing on the pounds.  I have been eating in moderation and haven't been going crazy with sweets or having snacks in between but I still feel like I have gained 20 pounds, even though I know I haven't!  Lara and Cristian decided to do the Mystery Muppets game tonight which is pretty neat.  You get a card and are a detective trying to solve a Mystery.  It sends you on a hunt ALL around the ship, up and down, back and forth, to find secret pieces of art that come to life and show a story once you show your detective badge and let it scan it.  You have to find all the clues you need to solve the mystery.  They are getting their exercise for sure considering it takes you all over creation and takes a good couple of hours to finish.  

I decided to take myself to Deck 4 to the track.  In my crop shorts, nice shirt, and sneakers I decided I was going to do my own exercise this evening.  I did 1.5 miles around the track.  I jogged half a lap and walked half a lap the entire time.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I was surprised to find that with my jogging I wasn't winded or out of breath as fast as I normally am.  I think tomorrow I will put on my workout clothes and even attempt to jog an entire lap at a snail pace lol.  But, hey why not?  It can't hurt to try!  I know that I burned some heavy calories tonight because I could feel my heart in my throat the entire time.  Hopefully hitting the track every night and taking stairs for both up and down will help burn the extra calories I am taking in by eating the food on the ship!  We haven't been taking the elevator - even when going and coming from the 11th floor.  :)

Tomorrow's stop is Costa Maya!  Mexico - here we come!

Cheers,

M E