Cruise Day 6 - At Sea

Slept in, ate, read, ate, read, slept, ate, exercised, slept. Oh, and discovered that I somehow never recorded the 2-hour season finale of Gray's Anatomy on my ReplayTV! Hopefully, it is on Teri's machine back at home [UPDATE: It was! We watched it the night we got home.]

Also, the ship came across a raft of Cuban refugees (we were between Florida and Cuba at the time). The captain of the Glory stopped the ship, came about, and offered assistance to the people on the raft. They accepted food and water, but refused the offer to come aboard. Our captain was required to notify the U.S. Coast Guard, who sent a cutter immediately. We stayed around to be certain the people on the raft remained safe, and then departed after the Coast Guard arrived. I posted a short video of the now-back-in-Cuba group at YouTube.

I've been reading a fabulous book: The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. It is one of the most well-written books I had the good fortune to read, and I highly recommend it. It is not for the faint of heart, so be warned.

Cruise Day 5 - Costa Maya

Costa Maya is more of a region than a city. The port was built fairly recently, only a mile or so from a fishing village. There are many more shops in the port complex than we saw in Belize City's port area, and the stuff they sell is more interesting. It is clearly a poor area that hopefully will be uplifted by all of the tourist dollars coming in.

As soon as we reached the end of the pier, we headed off with our new guide for the tour bus. The bus was pretty comfortable (at least it had very cold air conditioning), and gave us a good view of the area on the way to Chacchoben.

We arrived at the "visitors center" for Chacchoben, which is mostly a large tourist curio shop. As a group, we approached an open area in the jungle where the first Mayan pyramid appeared as we rounded the corner.

I plan to write up a detailed report on the ruins later, but I can definitely say I was pleasantly surprised by the site. This first pyramid was only the beginning! Even though many of the structures in the large complex are completely unexcavated (which translates into: Big hills covered by the jungle), there is still a lot here to see.

After a booooooring lecture about the discovery of chewing gum in the Yucatan (Chicklets are named after the Mayan word "Chikle" for the resin in the gym tree), we got to see a large avenue lined with the remains of residential structures. After following it for a while, we came to another large, raised area covered with trees and undergrowth. I assumed it was another unexcavated structure, but after walking along its length for several hundred feet we turned a corner to find a wide and tall staircase... the entire thing was a huge, man-made platform!

Climbing to the top delivered even greater and unexpected rewards: Two more pyramids, both more interesting that the first. It was very hot, very humid, and large insects swarmed about us, but I didn't really care. This was cool. Teri, on the other hand, had seen enough, and was more than ready to go when the group headed back for the buses.

The third pyramid had not only been stabilized and somewhat restored, but had also had a few layers peeled away on the rear wall. Archaeologists had uncovered several building episodes (Each new Mayan ruler would build a larger pyramid on top of the old one), and one of them retained the original plaster and red paint. When you look at these monumental buildings, imagine them painted with bright colors-- that's how they looked in their prime.

Cruise Day 4 - Belize

After such a wonderful day on the zip lines, biking, snorkeling, and tubing, we really didn't want to take a two-hour, round-trip bus ride to just tube through some caves on Tuesday. So, we changed our excursion!

Instead, we rode a powered catamaran to the barrier reef (the second-largest in the world), where we got to jump in and snorkel around (with flippers!) for an hour. It was very beautiful! We saw some very cool fish, lots of strange things growing out of the reef, and Teri got to hold a sea cucumber.

Teri and I both took what we hope will be exciting photos, but since we took them with disposable, underwater film cameras, we haven't seen them yet.

After our "Life Aquatic" experience, we visited a tiny recreational island named Bannister Caye. It's basically a big, white sand beach with a dock, a restaurant, a bar, and a gift shop. It was beautiful and uncrowded, and the only shortcoming was that we had but an hour to enjoy it.

Once we returned to the Glory, we dropped our gear and headed for to the shopping district in Belize City. It was amazingly hot and humid, and the sun was intense (good thing we took the early snorkeling excursion). The shops sold a lot of touristy junk, or they sold diamonds and rolexes. Not one bookstore! We decided to head upstairs to the Wet Lizard and get some local chips and salsa before heading back.

Dinner in the Platinum Dining Room was spectacular (as usual), and we returned to our room to find yet another towel sculpture left behind by our cabin steward: A friendly litttle elephant!

Photo Album Posted

No time today for a blog entry (we snorkeled at the barrier reef off the coast of Belize), but I did manage to upload a photo album of our visit to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Cruise Day 3 - Cozumel

Even though we were docked at Cozumel, our excursion took us to the mainland: Playa del Carmen on the Yucatan. We were in a group of just twelve people who chose the Mayan Jungle Explorer, an adventure involving four activities and a spectacular home-cooked meal.

The Eco-Tour company is AllTOURNative, and they were excellent hosts. Everything went very smoothly, and our guide (Juan Carlos) feels like a friend already.

Here's what we managed to do in just six hours:

• Mayan Blessing Ritual - We descended into a dry portion of a cenote (pronounced seh-no-tay) where a Mayan Shaman lit candles, burned some strange incense-like stuff on coals, and made us inhale the smoke. I wish I knew more about what he said in his prayers...

• Zip Line - What a blast. First, we did a fairly tame zip line (or so wee found out) across a clear pool of water. then we climbed a tall, wooden tower, and rode a long, fast zip line to the ground. That was fun! Can we do it again? Here's a movie of Teri on the zip line.

• Mountain Bike Tour - We all hopped on mountain bikes (not in good state of repair) and followed Juan Carlos along a road and then a single track trail. He stopped along the way to describe how his Eco-Tourism company was working with local Maya to help them stop slash-and-burn farming techniques and find more lucrative, sustainable employment close to home.

• Cenote Snorkeling - We swam for quite a while in a cenote (Sink Hole) full of crystal clear water. As much as 60 meters deep at some points, the views were impressive. I had never snorkeled before, but it was easy and fun. I took some great underwater photos, but they need to be developed. We followed this up by floating in a collapsed cenote on inner tubes, just enjoying the cool water and the beautiful scenery.

The meal they served was all homemade, local, and absolutely delicious. This was the best day of the vacation so far, for sure.

Cruise Days 1/2 - At Sea

We checked out of the hotel, drove a rental car to Port Canaveral (MUCH cheaper), and had lunch at Sonny's BBQ. Another food highlight! Not only were the meals tasty and hot, they were inexpensive. The service was good, too.

Between the time we arrived at the port and when we finally dropped our bags in our cabin, we stood in six long lines:

• Waiting to get through the security checkpoint


• Waiting to check in


• Waiting to get our cabin keys


• Waiting in VERY long line to board the ship (we discovered this took so long cuz we all had our pictures taken at the end)


• Waiting to sign up for our remaining excursions


• Waiting to change our dining room table assignment (we wanted a table for two)
  

The second day we slept late, ate three meals, and hit the gym to make up for them. We also experienced our first formal night in the dining room. Teri was radiant!

I finally signed up for internet access (55 cents per minute), and managed to upload the blog entry from Epcot.

Epcot

We visited Epcot both on Thursday and Friday afternoon. Thursday, after a really long bus ride from the Animal Kingdom, we only had time to experience two attractions before the park closed:

• Test Track - This highly technical attraction mimics a General Motors Proving Grounds facility in nearly every way. The queue takes visitors through a very detailed display of the various types of tests that are run at automotive proving grounds, describes just how sophisticated test dummies really are, and ultimately results in a test briefing from the test track director. You then get to jump is a very powserful and fast test car, which takes you through a number of road tests: Stress, rough road, high-speed braling with and without anti-lock brakes, and finally: the high-speed, banked curve, all-out test. It's quite a ride! Wanted to puke afterwards, though...

• Universe of Energy - 35 minutes of Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy telling us all about sources of energy? Sounds great! It wasn't. This was 35 minutes wasted... thousands of times a day. I didn't expect to learn a whole lot from this, but the truth is that NO ONE will learn anything from it. Instead, visitors get a lot of comedy, a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs, silly video gimicks, and no useful information about energy at all. Stunningly pointless. Bill Nye probably hates himself for collecting a big check for nothing.

Even though "Future Land" (or whatever the attraction area in Epcot is called) closed at 7:00pm, the World Showcase stays open until after the late-night fireworks show (whicch we did not see). We walked all the way around, stopping only in the Italy section. Here, we were lucky to get a patio table for two at Ristorante Alfredo, which has been the culinary highlight to date on this trip.

The bread they served was quite tasty, and the salads were exceptionally good, but nothing prepared us for the entrees. the Fetuccini Alfredo was simply the best I've ever had. The homemade egg noodles were perfectly cooked, and the sauce superior to anything else. Not to be outdone, Teri's meal was just as distinctive. She had the Lasagna, and the flavor was just about perfect. We finished the perfect meal with a perfect dessert... several, actually. They offered a dessert sampler that included five wonderful italian desserts, and they were just right.

On Friday, we returned again to Epcot, primarily to ride Mission:SPACE (although dinner at another international locale was certainly on the list). We ended up seeing/doing the following:

• Mission:SPACE - I had read recently about a second person dying after experiencing this ride, and was disappointed to hear that Disney was going to "dumb down" the ride (both deaths were attributed to health problems, and they never should have ridden it in the first place). I was nearly overjoyed to see that they have created a second version of the ride which is "Less intensive." Teri rode that one, and I rode the "More Intensive training" version, or at least I tried. The ride broke down! I was stll able to get back in line and it was fantastic. This full-motion simulator, combined with a centrifuge, provides an amazing experience. I certainly felt MUCH heavier during liftoff.

• Spaceship Earth - Ride into the huge silver golf ball and learn how communication was the key to the progress of humankind. Actually, it was pretty interesting, considering this ride hasn't changed much since Epcot opened in the 70's.

We ate in "Mexico," in an "outdoor" restaurant with the stars twinkling above an authentic-looking Mayan Pyramid. The food was okay, but came nowhere near the spectacular meal in "Italy" the night before.

Disney MGM Studios

Day three brought us to the Disney MGM Studios. As soon as we passed through the main gate, I new this would be more fun than the previous day. The main street leading away from the gate certainly looked as I imagined Hollywood might have looked after World War II, and provided eye candy in every direction.


Oddly enough, our first stop was for food. We headed straign for the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater, an indoor restaurant that looked quite a bit like an outdoor drive-in movie theater at night. Each car looked very similar to a '57 Chevy, except that there were tables in both the front and back seats.

While I ate a superior burger and Teri enjoyed a chicken sandwich, we watched trailers for campy, black-and-white, sciencce fiction "B" movies (most of which included powerful women from a planet with no men, american astronauts who could not resist them, and an inexplicably large spider).

After lunch, we visited the following attractions:

• Beauty and the Beast at the Hollywood Hill theater - This was a live show based on the Broadway version of the Disney animated film version of the original fairy tale. Unlike the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom the day before, this was a condensed version of the actual story. Similar to the Lion King show, this featured live singers and dancers. It was excellent!

• The Great Movie Ride - Residing in a wonderful replica of Mann's Chinese Theatre, this attraction takes you through animatronic scenes from several classic films, such as: Singing in the Rain; Mary Poppins; The Wizard of Oz; Alien;Casa Blanca; and more generally-themed scenes from Westerns.

• Sounds Dangerous starring Drew Carey - This would have been a lot more enjoyable if the left side of my headphones were working... Teri was unimpressed even though hers were working. Basically, you get to listen in while a detective goes undercover wearing a small camera and a microphone to uncover a smuggling ring. Early in the operation, his camera fails (after he hides it in his mouth), so you only get to hear what is happening (the theater is also completely darkened to make it easier for you to "see" what you are hearing). Nice idea, but with multiple headphone failures throughout the theater (I heard several people grumbling), it could have been a lot better.

We were planning to also attend the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, but then decided to bag it and head back to Epcot so I could ride Mission:SPACE.

The Animal Kingdom

The first thing that struck me about Disney's Animal Kingdom is how lush it is. There's stuff growing everywhere! It is definitely a beautiful place.

When we arrived at the Animal Kingdom, we were already hungry for lunch... so we headed for the Africa section to find a recommended restaurant: Tusker House. It's a typical Disney "fast food" restaurant, in that you get in line, pay a cashier for the food you want, and then go pick it up at a different window.

I have to say that the lunch we had at Tusker House was better than anything we had eaten so far! Teri and I both had the same thing: One half of a rotisserie chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and fresh, whole, green beans. Not only was it really tasty and high in quality, it was only $7.99! This made the meal I had at Cap'n Jack's on Wednesday (for over $20) look even worse.

After Tusker House, we headed for the Kilimanjaro Safari to get Fast Passes. We had a while to wait, so we trudged through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. The trail promised bathing hippos, gorillas, and other interesting animals, but all we saw were some semi-cool fish (although Teri was totally bored).

The Safari was fun for me, but Teri kept comparing it unfavorably to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. As with most Disney attractions, they tried to make it "real." We were supposedly on a real photo safari through a wildlife preserve in Africa.

Our driver/guide talked the whole time, providing lots of good info about the preserve and pointing out animals. He also radioed the local game warden, who was circling overhead in a plane looking for poachers. Near the end of the safari, our jeep was involved in the capture of some poachers! We did see a lot of African animals, including: African Elephants, Hippos, Thompson's Gazelles, Giraffes, Crocodiles, Flamingos, Cape Water Buffalo, and two lions.

The best part of Animal Kingdom (well, except for lunch), was the Festival of the Lion King show. Just as advertised, this high-energy, high-quality music and dance extravaganza did not disappoint. It combines elements of the Lion King Broadway show with high-wire acrobatics and flaming baton throwers! The performers were all top-notch, and we both had a great time.

Later, it was back in line for another attraction. Even though we had Fast Passes for over an hour later, we walked right into the Kali River Rapids, only having to wait 30 minutes. This is one of those circular rafts (seats 8) which takes you on a tumbling, excciting, and wet ride down a Disney-made river. It was over pretty quickly, but fun nonetheless.

It was already 4:30pm, so we had to make our escape and jump on the bus for Epcot.

The Magic Kingdom

We only have a few hours left on Wednesday, so we decided to visit the park which it seems as though we've been to before: The Magic Kingdom.

We thought we would be clever and catch a shuttle bus back to Disney's Contemporary Resort and catch the Monorail from there back to Disneyland East (the Monorail goes right through the hotel!). What we didn't realize is that the shuttle bus, upon leaving Downtown Disney, would visit every peripheral Disney park and attraction (e.g., Typhoon Lagoon, Pleasure Island) before making its way to the Contemporary Resort.

Once we reached the resort I got my first espresso since leaving Phoenix, and we boarded the Monorail. The ride to the Magic Kingdom was a spectacular one, taking us past the Disney Polynesian Resort and the Grand Floridian (it looks like a huge Hotel del Coronado).

I was stunned to note that we did not make it onto Main Street until after 7:30 pm! The park only stays open until 10:00pm, so we had very little time. Amazingly, we hit almost all of the attractions on our list for the night, and even managed to be the very last people allowed onto the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

We also experienced:

• Mickey's PhilharMagic - an animated 3-D film featuring Donald Duck and many Disney film favorites. The overall experience is very reminiscent of Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.
  

• Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin - Without the laser target practice, it would be a lot like many other Disney rides... your car follows a track through brightly painted plywood images from Buzz Lightyear while a familiar soundtrack plays. Fortunately, the laser gun is fun, and it tallys your points! Teri and I also purchased the photo they took of us shootin' at Zurg.

• Peter Pan's Flight - This ride hasn't changed in 40 years... and it shows. Still fun, though.

• Pirates of the Caribbean - The original has been updated to include Davey Jones and Captain Jack Sparrow (he appears three different times), but I didn't like it as much as the original in Disneyland (where was the spooky bayou?).

While waiting for Teri, I managed to shoot a two-minute movie of the Disneyland Parade that was keeping us from Fantasyland. Download it here (It's kinda big at 116 MB).

We never made it to the Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, or the Carousel of Progress... so we're going to try to return before Saturday.

We're Here!

After missing an entire night's sleep, it was like a dream come true when the desk person at the Westin Buena Vista Palace Hotel said we could check in early (it was only 10:00am!).

We ate breakfast in the Cafe, showered, and fell into bed for a much-needed four-hour nap. More good fortune: The Buena Vista Palace is remodeling their rooms, and we got one of the new ones. It's very nice!

Hungry once more, we headed to Downtown Disney (a Disney-themed shopping and dining district right across the street from our hotel) where we wasted $60 on an extremely ordinary meal. Cap'n Jack's seemed like a good idea-- they get a good review in the Birnbaum's 2006 Disney World Guide, they serve seafood (Teri wanted shrimp), and I hoped they were named after Captain Jack Sparrow.

Well, it seems that Birnbaum's provides the "Official Disney World Guide," so pretty much everything is positive in the guide. While there was nothing wrong with our meal,
and the service was above average, it was also completely un-noteworthy. My advice: Hit Denny's and save $40 (you guessed it-- NOT Jack Sparrow).

Next: Off to the Magic Kingdom!

Getting out of town

After briefing the house/dog sitter (Gena from Bark-N-Meows) and actually leaving on time, we spent our last meal in the Phoenix area at Grilled Expedition, and then headed for the airport.

Everything was uneventful up through boarding (at 10:30 pm), until the flight attendant announced that due to a tehnical glitch, they would be unable to turn off the cabin lights in the coach cabin.

As one might predict, sleep was elusive. Not only because of the lighting, however... I did manage to spill a full glass of water and ice into Teri's lap! Her remark on the way to the lavatory to change her clothes: "It's a good thing we're married... if we were only dating, I would break up with you."

We changed planes in Atlanta, and arrived in Orlando at abbout 8:15 in the morning. It's been quite a vacation so far!