After that I have a cruise meet in the Promenade Lounge to meet all the new friends I had made on line. There were lots of great folks there to meet. We all had a good time putting faces to names and all the kids getting aquainted was so nice.

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After much chatting and a few random photos it was time to head back to the room to prepare for the safety drill. It was fairly quick and the new life jackets they got last year are so much easier than the old ones were to put on and off.

When we arrived back to the room to leave off the life jackets our luggage had arrived. I unpacked in record time so we could zip up to the Adventures away party. I mostly listened to it because I had been to so many before (cruise #20) that we went to deck 10 and mid ship to watch us pull out the channel.
I had my white Mickey hand on and wave to many people along the way out to sea. Sorry to say we saw NO dolphins or turtles this time, just a few pelicans channel.
The Adventures away party
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Me waving as we leave port.
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We were both exhausted so didn’t bother with going to dinner. We used room service and relaxed. I had come down with a cold and fell asleep sitting up on the bed. Next thing I knew it was morning and I hadn’t even changed my clothes or brushed my teeth. YUCKY!!

Our first 2 days were sea days and they were rocking and rolling. For us it was nothing, 13 foot waves . But unfortunately many were looking a bit green those days. We like the rocking feeling, so nice to sleep when it’s that way. 2 years ago it was 30 foot waves, so this was nothing for us.
The best part was watching the pools until they had to close them. They looked like wave pools sloshing over the top from one side to the other. The kids in the family pool were having a blast.

All the new perks for Castaway members were great. We are platinum and loved all the gifts.
If you want to be surprised by what they are doing then don’t read the next few paragraphs because I am going to list what we received.

First you have the special check in line.

Your given lanyards that say Gold, Silver or Platinum on them.

At our level you have a free dinner at Palos. DCL called us before the cruise to book this for us.
We got to choose one gift, either a cheese platter, fruit basket, shrimp cocktails, or sparkling wine to be delivered when we chose it. We did the fruit basket. It had 2 green apples, 2 red apples, 3 bananas, 4 Kiwi already cut, grapes and strawberries.

Our fruit basket
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Then we got to choose between a special behind the scenes tour of The WD Theater or an Animal encounter at Castaway Cay.
We did the WD theater tour. We had done one in the past but this was much more detailed and really worth doing. We got to try on costumes and go down on one of the stage lifts to deck 2 to see how props were stored to be placed on the lifts with the actors who come up onto the stage during the shows. It was an excellent tour.

Me in one of Cinderellas gowns.
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Greg in Prince Charmings coat. This was a once in a life time event to get Greg to put this coat on. LOL!!!
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Then there was the Castaway party in Studio Sea. They served lots of snacks and the Captain talked, then we saw a short film clip about future ships and Captain Mickey was there for photos. This was so much nicer than the old meets. Everyone received a tall plastic wine glass with the DCL logo on it as they left. That was much nicer than drawing for a few clocks and then the rest got nothing like it used to be.


We also were given a leather document holder which is quite nice.

Plus the red and black tote bag on the bed with metal drink cups inside.
Also 4 chocolate truffles and cute frosted rice krispy treats shaped like red and blue sandals. They were very cute! I saved them and gave them tour dog sitter as a gift they were so cute.

If you spend $100.00 or more in ONE transaction you get $25.00 credit back on your account. You can combine items from both stores but you must tell the clerk so they will take it all to one store to be rung up together or you won’t get the credit. They will not void a previous purchase to add it another one either. It must be done all at once.

They did give us a paper with all our perks on it, however it was 3 days into the cruise when it arrived. So we didn’t get our discount. That was ok because we didn’t really spend much this time anyway.

All the shows were excellent as usual. Disney has very talented performers.
We also had the comedy music of John Charles which we have seen any times before. But always enjoy his performance. They had a new high energy comedy duo called Alfred & Seymour. I really didn’t care for them. They had a couple good lines but that was all. They spent a lot of their time embarrassing people who had to get up to leave, usually with a child. Some laughed others looked embarrassed. I am sure many loved them, but they wern’t my kind of entertainers. Just my opinion though. Please go and see them and judge for yourself.
Ricky Kalmon was a hypnotist and was very good and funny too. Micheal Harrison also performed. He was a ventriloquist and very good too. These performers do a family and adult show. Don’t miss them, they are well worth going to see. Lots of comedy in all the shows.
Soul Drive was the house band and Midtown was the duo in the Promenade lounge. We really enjoyed the duo. They were very talented and did a wide variety of music.

St. Croix was our first stop. We had never been there and decided to do the Christiansted walking tour.

LONG dock at St. Croix
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It was hot and sticky but an excellent tour. Our guide Heavenly, was great. Her assistants were really nice too. We toured a weigh station at the port, a fort, the governor’s house, a very old church and some shopping. This woman really knew her history.
I loved the ball room in the Governor’s mansion. It was very beautiful. She even had her assistant bow to a seated lady and he asked her to dance like they did a long time ago. She blushed something fierce, but was a good sport about it. Good thing he didn’t pick me or his feet would have got stepped on. I am a terrible dancer.
This is our guide Heavenly and the stairs behind her take you up to the Grand Ball room at the Governors Mansion.

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Ball room which is still used today for non profit organizations to have parties for fund raisers.

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Then we took turns standing at the Governors podium for photos. When it was our turn the young man said “smile” and I said NO, we are from Disney. Our photographers always say, Mickey Mouse!!
He laughed and turned all red in the face. Everyone applauded and after that he said, say Mickey Mouse as everyone smiled for their photos. Afterwards he came up to me and said he had never heard of that before but he sure would never forget it. He was prepared for the next time Disney came there.
Governors podium
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Courtyard at Governors mansion
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Historic church we toured.
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Fort Christiansted Excellant tour
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Entrance to fort

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Original guard station. Very small and HOT! Guards wore wool uniforms
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Prison cell in the fort. Many had dirt floors
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Dungeons where the worst were kept. No windows most places.

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Enlisted mens quarters. They were locked in at night so nobody would go AWOL.
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Ladies, this was your stove in the kitchen
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This was the pantry.
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Powder house. Inside you couldnt even stand up the ceiling was so low.

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Weapons room
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We finished the tour and were back to the ship by 1:20 and headed to Topsiders for lunch. There really are not many shops by the port so we didn’t bother with getting back off again. It was a long pier so they did have a free tram to take you back and forth if you wanted.
We just relaxed and saw a movie. Not sure which one it was, but I think it was the new 3-D Christmas carol..


During the course of the cruise we saw A Christmas Carol, G-Force, Up, and Surrogates. I liked the 3D effects but their glasses don’t fit comfortably over regular glasses, which was akward.

The next day was St. Thomas where we have been many times before. We had debated about going over to St. Johns but we have also been there many times. So we decided to see what Coral world was like and do the Semi sub tour. Coral World is quite small. They had lots of nice looking fish and turtles and birds to see but if you’ve ever been to some place like Sea World or Atlantis you won’t be impressed.
Coral world snack shop and ray tank
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Underwater Observatory

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Sea turtle
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It is very good for younger kids. Everything is easy to see, not too far apart too.
If you see the shark tank, be sure and walk down behind it for a much better view in the tank.
The underwater observatory was nice but the 2nd level was under construction so the stairs were closed off with plastic a bit and dusty. Be warned the stairs are narrow and windy, like a light house would be, so watch your kids carefully. Of course there is a hand rail but those stairs are tricky.
It is well worth going down to see the fish though. Just watch your step.

Side view of shark tank
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Iguanas everywhere
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Gotta go for a few hours will try to finish this report later this afternoon.
Kathy Thanks for being patient.

What a great read. Piccies are Nice, can't wait for next installment.
chris would have picked the fruit basket too.
So do I take it that you and Greg are in pantomime this year

The semi sub was really good. We saw a lot of fish, a pirate ship wreck and a sunken plane. The water was a bit cloudy in places but mostly a great view. Everyone has their own window and they do turn around and return the same route so you will get to see both sides. They also have a diver who holds things like Hermit crabs up to each and every window. Then he will feed the fish, again being careful to go by each and every window so everyone can see.

sorry this shot of the diver is dark but it is hard to take photos under the water through the window.
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The area is large too so you don’t feel closed in. Colors change while you are there too. Your tongue looks purple and teeth turn green. Photos look greenish too. She explained why but it’s too detailed to explain again. I don’t have that great of a memory. LOL! But I do recommend a semi sub ride to anyone, especially with young kids. Of course since you are out in the ocean you do take chances with rough currents making the waters cloudy or some days the fish may move out of range. There are no guarantees. Although we had a young shark right on the side of the ship the whole trip. The guide said he showed up about a week ago and knows food is coming, so he has been staying with them every tour.

Our tag along baby shark

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Semi-Sub
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Inside semi sub. Lady standing in green shirt is our guide You can see all the windows if you look closely.
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This shows how greenish we all looked in photos but in person you couldnt tel. Teeth are brown and tongue was purple.
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