Sunday, July 4, 2004

2004 July 7 nt. Graduation Cruise to the Western Caribbean with Angie on Carnival Elation: Progresso; Belize; Cozumel

July 4, 2004:

This was another mother/daughter trip. The excuse for this trip was celebration of her graduation from K-state the month before.
We got an early start to the day. Our flight to Houston left at 6:30 am, so we were at the airport about 5:45. We arrived in Houston about 8:30 where we retrieved our luggage, then waited until 10:45 for our shuttle to Port Galveston to catch our cruise ship, Carnival's Elation.  One thing we discovered from this cruise---when you cruise out of Texas, 90%+ of the passengers are down home Texans!  Lots of ye-haws and cowboy hats!  Nothing wrong with that, just found it interesting and amusing.
I picked this particular cruise for a couple of reasons. I always heard about the great barrier reef by Belize and wanted to snorkel there. The other reason was because I found a travel agent selling that cruise on Ebay for $450@ + $150 onboard credit.



7-4-04 embarkation day---

 

7-5-04 sea day---

 

7-6-04 Chichen Itza


7-7-04 Cozumel---

 

7-8-04 Belize!

 

 7-9&10-2004 sea days---

 


And that's it for another great mother/daughter trip.

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

2004 March - our 3rd Kauai visit, Dad's 2nd, Tim and Faith's 1st: Keahua Forestry Arboretum; Smith's luau; Waimea Canyon; McBryde Gardens; Fern Grotto tour

March 2004---back on our island. This was the first use of our 2 bedroom/2 bath ownership at Pahio Kauai Beach Villas. Again I rented a 2nd week and we had visitors join us for both weeks---Tim and Faith for one week and Dad for the other. The week Tim and Faith were there turned out to be one of the worst ones weatherwise that we've encountered. It was rather cool and rainy the whole week. But they were still impressed enough with Kauai to go back (their 3rd time will be coming up soon). I think the only day they saw sun was on the day they were leaving.

Here they are on the lanai of our timeshare condo.


Before Wyndham took over, Pahio use to run some interesting events at the condo. Here I'm participating in one where they brought dried coconuts and paints and let us paint one. I painted a Bird of Paradise flower on mine. Later in the week we took it to the post office and mailed it to Tim and Faith. I thought it was interesting that you can mail a coconut without wrapping it. They just staple the postage onto it and away it goes. I don't remember how much postage was, but it wasn't too much.

Just a few more pictures around Kauai Beach Villas---

the lush landscaping

the beach


More landscaping


Saturday, February 7, 2004

2004—Feb. Disney Wonder 4 nt; Not your ordinary 1st Cruise!--Nassau; Half Moon Cay


Feb. 2004 Disney Wonder 4 night cruise:

 I guess Dad's and my Florida/Disney trip was doomed from the beginning! On the way to the PDX airport, Dad wrecked his car---which was ultimately totaled by the insurance company. But he had the car towed to a repair shop and continued on to the airport and I flew from St. Louis and met him in Orlando for the beginning of a very different "vacation".

I will say the week at Orange lake Resort (his timeshare) was great. We didn't do the Disney thing this year, instead, we went to Universal Studios and a new favorite place of Dad's, The Holyland Experience. When our week there was up, we headed back to the Orlando airport and dropped off the car. Then spent the night in a hotel with a free shuttle to the airport.  This part of our trip is HERE.

On Feb. 8th, we took the shuttle back to the airport and caught our shuttle to the Disney cruise ship in Cape Canaveral. It was about an hour ride, but they had tv monitors throughout the bus with videos of the Disney ships and their cruises.  We chose this short 4 night cruise because neither of us had been on a cruise before and we didn't know if we'd like cruising, so we thought we'd try a short one.  We went with Disney because Dad had Disney stock and a general fondness for Disney.  You might think Disney would mainly by for families, but it was an excellent cruise for just adults, too.  They have plenty of adult only areas, including pool and Jacuzzi area, and monitor those areas so kids do not come in them.  Not that I hate kids---I have a couple, but now I'm older and enjoy a little peace and quiet sometimes!


2-8-2004  embarkation on our first ever cruise:

 

2-9-04 Nassau:

 

2-10-04 Castaway Cay:

 

2-11-04 - 2-18-04 hospital, everglades


It was a tough week! It wasn't my first medical emergency on a trip (Angie in England), and it wasn't to be my last! Never thought it would take 9 hours to go from cruise ship to hospital. Never thought about the hassles of getting hotels, car rentals, flights changed---not to mention customs, insurance matter, accident reports. Never considered trip insurance---although Dad's insurance covered him 100%, thanks to his military career and Medicare. What a way to end a first cruise for either of us!
I did email Disney Cruise line to see if they heard about this accident on one of their ship sponsored excursions and they told me to send a letter in writing.  I did and much to my surprise, they sent us a voucher for BOGOF Disney cruise.  So Dad and I did our 2nd cruise in 2005.  This time for 7 nights on the Disney Wonder.  To check out our "do over cruise", click here: 2005 Disney cruise

Saturday, January 17, 2004

2004 winter Florida/1st cruise experience!



This was Dad's and my 2nd trip back to Orange Lake Resort since he purchased the 5th week of every year back in 2002.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time here.  But this trip, it was also a pre-vacation for a first ever cruise for each of us.

Orange Lake Resort was as great as always.  Love that we have a golf villa with parking right in front of our unit and all the golf villas are 1 story.  His unit is even very close to this big pool area
 Dad and I spent many hours in this huge jacuzzi.  I also loved the heated pool above.
 We even backed up to one of the golf courses and this lake beyond it. 
 Orange Lake even has a lot of restaurants ---like this ice cream place.
Pretty new to the resort is the Riverwalk area---which has another really neat pool
 a huge lazy river.  As an owner at Orange Lake Resort, we have access to all the pools.
Usually we would go to Disney World when we were in Orlando, but this time we decided to make it a Universal Studios vacation.  So we picked up the 3 day pass.  As I recall, it was something like buy 2 days get 1 free.

Universal Studios---Day 1

From a photographer's point of view, Universal Studios is a great place to take pictures. 

 Lots of color and familiar show references. 

 Plus the shows we saw were really good.  This was part of the Blue's Brothers show.
 Lots of scenic areas.

 Dad admiring an old Yellow cab.

 even the reflections on the ponds were cool

 Even saw a mini version of the Colosseum there.
 I don't remember a lot of what we did there, just that I enjoyed taking colorful pictures.

Universal Day 2---Islands of Adventure

lots of cartoon characters and rides in this area.
 Dr. Seuss  land
 bet that would be a fun restaurant to eat in.

 Got a kick out of the name
 popeye

 One of the more popular rides there in 2004


 not a fan of roller coasters, but they look cool
 more a fan of natural settings---and ones that look more natural.

 not as landscaped as Disney, but still pretty.
 more movie set stuff---which you'd expect in Unirversal studios.

 Theodor Seuss Geisel---Dr. Seuss,  had quite the interesting thoughts.



 more views around the park

 and reflections
 what a cool merry go round


 neat name for a store



Universal Studios---day 3
back for our 3rd day

 loved this juxtaposition
 Scooby Doo van!
 cute little ride---ET
 This was what I remember the most.  This Beetlejuice's Rock and Roll Graveyard Revue.  We enjoyed it so much we saw it twice.  I understand it was discontinued in 2016---too bad.






 Don't remember what these hip-hop dancers name was, but they also had a really neat routine!


Holyland Experience---This was another place we enjoyed going to.  Actually went here 3 times over the years that Dad and I got to use his week in Orlando before he died in 2008.  I wouldn't say I'm a religious fanatic, but there's a lot of history shown here, too.
 They had interesting plays---
 and singing

 and recreations.
 plus the buildings were built to resemble those in Jerusalem. 
 There was even a huge model of how Jerusalem looked back in Jesus's day.


Arabian Knights Dinner Theatre---We got discounted tickets to Arabian Nights, probably from going to an owners update, or something. 
 It was interesting---albeit kind of dirty when you think about all the horses that run around in there kicking up dirt every day.
 But I like horses, so looked past that.
 This was probably my favorite part of the show---at the end when they let the horses out on their own and they played in the arena.

Capone's dinner theatre---found tickets to here for BOGOF, so checked it out.
 Entering---as if entering a speak-easy
 Cute play with good actors
 Food was really good, too.


 They even interacted with the guests.  We liked it so much, we went back a couple more times in future trips.

Air boat ride---who would have thought you could to air boat rides just outside of Orlando?!  But the Everglades actually stretches up that far. 
 a wood stork
 our happy group.

Part 2 of our trip---our disastrous 1st ever cruise:
We picked a short 4 night cruise to see if we liked cruising.  So we took a Disney one out of Cape Canaveral.  Dropped our rental car off at the MCO airport and spent the night at a nearby hotel with free shuttle.  Next day we took the shuttle back to the airport where we had arranged to take a Disney shuttle to the cruise port. 
For more details on our cruise, click on the link below----

Feb. Disney Wonder 4 nt; Not your ordinary 1st Cruise!--Nassau; Half Moon Cay