2005 Feb.---Disney Wonder Cruise (7 nt), Let's try again!--St. Maarten; St. Thomas; Castaway Cay

Feb. 2005- Disney Wonder 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise:

Disney Wonder!

After the disastrous Disney Magic cruise the year before (where Dad attempted drowning, as he called it), I emailed Disney Cruise lines to see if they were aware of what happened on one of their sanctioned excursions. One of the things cruise lines boost about using their excursions is the "safety checks" they make on the providers.  I figured they needed to "check" this group again.  About a month later, I received a coupon in the mail for Buy One, Get One Free on another Disney Cruise. They certainly weren't obliged to do that, but we appreciated it and took them up on their offer to cruise with them again. This time, we elected to go on a 7 night cruise of the Eastern Caribbean and enjoyed an ocean view room.  (To check out that disastrous cruise, click here: Disastrous 1st cruise  )

2-5-2005 embarkation day:
  
2-6,7-2005 Sea Days:

2-8-2005 St. Maarten:

2-9-2005 St. Thomas; St. John USVI

2-10-2005 Sea day:

2-11-2005 Castaway Cay:

 Our week ended too soon and soon we were getting off our cruise.

I wouldn't mind cruising on Disney cruiselines again, but I think the price will probably keep me from doing so. But this was a very good vacation. Thanks, Disney! Thanks, Dad! Thanks, God, for keeping us safe this time!

2005 Orlando with Dad followed by a do-over Disney Cruise

After our disastrous trip last year, Dad and I decided we needed a do-over this year.  Although we didn't go for the 5th week of the year that his timeshare is.  Ken and I had a trip to Hawaii then, so we banked the Orange Lake week and trading into Sheraton Vistana Villages with RCI.  We weren't disappointed.  It was very nice, too.  And our whole trip ended up being very nice.

 

Sheraton Vistana Villages:

love their pools

 and they were open until about 1 am!

Yes, we closed out the pool and jacuzzi a few times---all by ourselves.

our 2 bedroom unit was comfy and nicely done

Epcot:

If we went to Disney, this was the park Dad wanted to go to.  I did't mind, it is very pretty.

especially decorated for xmas

the moving mime

We even ate at the German buffet this time.  Very good!

complete with German music for entertainment

Dad liked trying on hats

This was back when they decorated for xmas.  We were there in early Jan., so got to see the decoration.  I understand they don't do that anymore

still light up the regular exhibits around Epcot

I love the ocean---and love this cute little Nemo ride.

Holyland:

An interesting place for history buffs.  Not that I'm one, but we did go here 3 different years and by the 3rd time I really did appreciate all the history here.

like the model of Jeruselum

Capones Dinner Theatre:

Corny but fun.  As you would expect, the dinner was an Italian buffet.

P Lew Gardens:

 I love gardens and will go to reciprocol gardens to our Missouri Botanical Gardens every chance I get.  They all are fascinating to me.

even got to tour the house at this one.

large grounds with lots of flowers.

After our week in Orlando we did our redo of our Disney cruise.   Last year Dad almost drowned so Disney gave us a free cruise.  Nice of them to do that!

2005 Feb.---Disney Wonder Cruise (7 nt), Let's try again!--St. Maarten; St. Thomas; Castaway Cay

 

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.

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

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