100 Years Ago Today

Disney seems so integral a part of the American experience that it's hard to believe all four of my grandparents were on this Earth before Disney became "Disney". 

 

Rogue One

Last night at 11 pm eastern time -- or, as Disney proudly told the crowd, "An hour before any other fan in the hemisphere!" --  Smiley and I saw Rogue One. Watching it on the ocean lent a VR quality to the movie, with each roll of the ship making you feel like you were in the action. As for the movie itself: Aside from being visually gorgeous, it has a strong, dark story, great characters, and very little of the schmaltz that burdens the series. Plus it has Peter Cushing. What else could you ask for? #DisneyCruise

 

 

 

Almost There!

On our way to the Dream!

Stingray Freakout

Mom and LuLu -  remember when we were snorkeling and Mom got all freaked out about the sting ray? I looked up stingray barb and oh my lord if I had known I wound have been swimming back to shore faster than Phelps - YaYa

All stingrays around castaway cay are de-barbed for safety but I didn't know that at the time that's why I was freaking out! That snorkeling with you girls was one of the most fun things I've ever did! - Lisa

A Great Day Aboard

One of the reasons for haste while shopping was that I had a 4:30PM appointment at the golf simulator on the ship. It was my first time using one, and I stunk up the joint. Not *all* of it was my fault – no one told me that putting was useless on such a machine because it fails to register the motion, so I racked up a zillion strokes on the greens at Pebble Beach – but, yeah, mostly I sucked. 

It was fun though :)

Then it was back to the stateroom to shower and change for dinner. On our first cruise dinner required dress attire, a restriction that had been relaxed in the years since. We abhorred that change, even as we ourselves attended at least once in shorts, because part of the fun of the cruise was acting like you were fancier than your measly station in life. 

On the second day from port (Day Five by this tale’s reckoning) diners were encouraged to dress their best, and so I put on my shirt and tie and the kids and Lisa tidied up as well. Some of the kids whined that we would look out of place, and sure enough, some people still showed up in shorts, but oh well - I’m glad we dressed up. 

Dinner was marvelous. As always dinner was a four course affair. I wish I had a copy of the menu, but I know I had some marvelous roast duck, and a soufflé for desert that was so decadent, so wonderful, so undeniably heavenly that I do not hesitate to say that eating it may be the most pleasurable thing I have ever done, and by itself a justification for enduring forty years on this Earth. 

That said, not everyone could hang with the “fancy” food. LuLu by this night had already opted out and ordered off the kids menu. Grace kept trying but often couldn’t pull the trigger and actually *eat* the food – I ate half her escargot, and the rest went untouched. At least she tried. 

During dinner professional photographers came by to record the moment, and Tony and Jupa, our servers, made the kids origami animals. 

Afterwards it was back to the club for Smiley (the kid wanted to spend every spare waking moment there) and YaYa, despite her long standing wish to see Hades host the show that night, had some pressing engagement at The Edge and backed out. Lu went to The Edge too, but eventually returned to the room to read and chill. 

Only Junie remained with us to see “Villians!”, hosted, as I mentioned by Hades from Hercules. It tells the tale of Hades as he struggles to prove to the Fates that he’s just as evil as ever. 

Afterwards we took her to have her autograph book signed by Princess Tiana, and she got the chance to dance with Goofy in the atrium!

With a big day ahead the next day, I think we were all in the staterooms and asleep by midnight.

The Return Flight

The flight into Milwaukee

Bahama Style

YaYa's new do. Her sisters have them too, but apparently they didn't "borrow" my phone for a selfie like their sister.