The Disney Wonder cruise ship was beautiful. We had outside staterooms with a large porthole (about 4 feet in diameter) so we were right at home being able to look out at the ocean. Amy, Mark and the girls could feel some motion as the ship crossed to the Bahamas but Linda and I didn't notice it as much, of course.
We pulled out of Port Cape Canaveral with the ship's horn playing the first few notes of "When You Wish Upon A Star". Just before the ship left the dock, they held the lifevest/lifeboat drill. Here we are all getting ready to abandon ship! :-)
In the morning as we woke up the ship was docking in Nassau. We had a nice breakfast and then left the ship for our "port adventure" which was a ride on a semi-submersible out on the reefs. A great way to see the reef in comfort without getting wet or cold! A power catamaran took us out of the harbor to the semi-submersible boat which was waiting near the reef. You go below and sit looking out of the windows about 4 feet below the surface. The clarity of the water and health of the reef were a bit disappointing as everyone raves about the clear water in the Bahamas. The coral reef was in much worse shape than the coral reefs here in the Keys, really almost dead! BUT, there were lots of fish and even a shark and we all enjoyed it very much.
Here is a photo of a remora (sucker fish that attaches to sharks) taken out the window. He even attached himself to the boat for awhile!
The next evening the ship left Nassau and went only 62 miles north to Castaway Cay, the island owned by the Disney Cruise Line. As we woke up and looked out our porthole, the ship was backing into the pier.
Here are some photos taken at Castaway Cay:
Each night there was a Broadway type musical show with Disney characters at the big theater. Here are a couple of photos of the shows:
Every evening we had a great dinner at a different fancy restaurant, each with a different theme. We had the same two waiters each night and they treated us well and were very entertaining. The girls were very sad on the last night about leaving the ship and the waiters! The last evening we celebrated Olivia's 8th birthday and they brought a cake to the table and sang to her.
Here is a photo of the girls with our waiters, Zaldy and Iketut:
One night was "Dress-Up" night. Here is a photo of Linda and me dressed up. I had to break out my sports jacket and a TIE which had only happened once before in the past 5 years!!!!! As you can see from my pose, it amost caused paralysis and stiffness (AKA, Ed Sullivan Syndrome).
And one of Amy, Mark, Olivia and Laura:
When the ship returned to Port Canaveral after the 4 night/5 day cruise, we drove to Kissimmee and spent Christmas there with Phyllis and John at their condo. One day we went to Gatorland in Orlando. Suffice it to say they had LOTS of gators!! Don't know how many but hundreds, maybe a thousand! I could post some photos of gators or a crazy redneck Florida craker wrestling with a gator or holding its mouth open with his chin but you get the idea!! The girls and all of us grown-up kids enjoyed it.
We had a great Christmas dinner cooked by John and Phyllis, opened gifts and watched the girls enjoy Christmas and play with all their gifts.
When we were back at our hotel room that evening the flu hit Linda like a ton of bricks!! High fever, chills, body aches, etc. She was down for the count the next day in the hotel room. The following day we decided to make a break for it and drove 4 hours south to a hotel in Florida City and she went to bed again. I did some shopping and then that night I was getting sick. The next day I was able to drive us the two hours back to the Keys and row us back out to the boat. Linda went to bed for the next 18 hours! I was not hit as hard, continued to remain mostly vertical and able to get us settled back in. Linda has much lower immunity to the flu as she went her whole life up until 3 years ago without catching it! We have decided that from now on we WILL be getting flu vaccines each year and avoid winter travel as much as possible.
Despite ending the trip with the flu, it was a great vacation and we all had a wonderful time, took lots of photos and stored away some lasting memories.
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