Pelican Plunge

IMG_0598, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Thursday, March 17th:

Thursday was a sea day - we started the day with a character breakfast; while we were served breakfast a bunch of Disney characters would come by the tables for autographs and photo opportunities. I left midway for a pedicure. Really! And I enjoyed it! That seemed to be the theme for this vacation for me - doing relaxing girly-girl stuff.

We did more sea day things - Brenden went to the kid's clubs and played with Lilly then went to the pools and played with Brett. Jon and I played Bingo (yeah really) but we didn't win anything. Oh, it was Saint Patrick's Day so in celebration of not having a drop of Irish blood in me I drank Guinness Stouts all day.

Disney sometimes premieres its movies on board the ships the same time they are coming out in theaters so we watched Mars Needs Moms. When we got home I was amused to note that this movie bombed hard. It wasn't that bad. We liked it. I was a little freaked that the little kid who was the lead character looks like an 8 year old Seth Green but then I lolled when I saw the credits - Green had provided the voice and the character movements.

Friday, March 18th:

Friday was Castaway Cay day, on Disney's private island. I knew ahead of time that the Flying Dutchman had been dismantled - it was a movie set after all and time and some serious storms had taken their toll. I'm glad we got to see it on our first cruise!

Jon and Brenden went and rented a paddle boat - I found us some chairs and an umbrella near the Pelican Plunge and I read my Kindle and admired my shiny toenails in the sunlight. When Jon and B came and found me Jon went snorkelling and got some nifty photos of some creepy cuttlefish (they may be squids - my marine taxonomy is a mite shaky) and I helped Brenden build a sandcastle. A cute little 3 year old asked his mommy if he could help us and she told him to ask us. He did and I said we needed all the help we could get.

When Jon came back he took over sandcastle duties so I lounged and read some more. When we got back to the boat I took one last trip to the Rainforest Room, which I had all to myself. Yay!

Friday was the last full day and I don't remember what we did that evening except say goodbye to our Canadian dinner partners as well as our multinational servers.

Saturday, March 19th:

We woke up to see the ship docking at Port Canaveral, boo. We ate breakfast one last time then left the ship and took the shuttle to the car rental place. Since our plane didn't leave for Huntsville until 3 pm, we had some time to kill. Like many cruisers, we killed it by visiting the Kennedy Space Center.

As a nerd, that's kind of like visiting a holy shrine for me. We wanted to see the space shuttle on the launch pad but the tour for that lasted too long. We walked around some and I let Brenden play in a play area while I listened to a tour guy talking about the space programs while leading a group around their rocket exhibit.

Maybe I'm prejudiced, but the US Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville is a much better museum as far as I'm concerned. I do know touring the Marshall Space Flight center might not be as exciting as seeing the frickin Space Shuttle on the launch pad but still.

We stayed and watched an IMAX movie, Hubble 3D (Waaay nifty) then headed for the airport. The trip home was extremely uneventful. I managed to walk off the ship with a scratchy throat and ended up with a nasty chest cold that kept me home from work Monday and Tuesday. I'm glad I didn't get that at the beginning of the trip.