Castaway Cay

We barely made it to Castaway Cay because it was so windy. In fact, the captain had to rearrange the entire itinerary. We made it there a day late, but we still made it!

Thankfully, the wind died down so it was comfortable. It was still kind-of chilly though.

The island had some Christmas decorations, but not too many. I was actually mildly disappointed at the lack of decor.

Although the tram was sure in the Christmas spirit!

Must be Santa ...

One morning, as I was walking around deck 4 watching the boat dock, I ran into Santa in the lobby. Unfortunately I looked homeless, and I hadn't showered yet, but hey - it's Santa!!!

I also ran into a different looking Santa in Nassau, Bahamas.

I just notice something funny about these 2 photos. Photo with Santa in the lobby - I'm unshowered. Photo with plastic dark Santa, I'm showered. Yet, I look pretty much the same, and I seem to be wearing almost the same clothing. Gross ...

Jodi Benson!

Jonathan, his parents and I just got off a wonderful (and cold!) 4-night Disney cruise.

Check out who else was cruising with us ... Jodi Benson, the voice of The Little Mermaid.

We bumped into her in the lobby, then again in the lunch buffet line (where we got our photo with her. She mentioned she was doing a show and autograph signing the next day (for a private group, but hey, she invited us!) so we went to that too.

She was so sweet and nice. And her voice was amazing! She same songs from a bunch of broadway shows and 90's Disney movies. We really got lucky that this private group was on the same cruise as us! I felt quasi-guilty crashing their private concert, but heck, Jodi 'personally' invited us! (ha ha ha!)

Joe Rhode

I met super Imagineer Joe Rhode on the cruise.

I was actually stalking Bill Farmer (the voice of Goofy) at the time, and Joe Rhode is standing right on front of me. So why not ask him for a photo.

I'm wearing my super cool uniform, while Joe looks very daper and island-y.

Joe is the mastermind behind Aulani, the Adventure's Club, Expedition Everest and pretty much the entire Animal Kingdom park.

Cheers Joe!

Squeak, squeak!

How cute are these little guys from that Pixar short film?

On the SS Member Cruise 2010 they were hiding over in the Route 66 area of the ship.

Hi Grandma!

In case you thought I was cool ... here I am knitting on the beach at Disney's Castaway Cay.

Ironically, I'm knitting a scarf.

Just the article of clothing one needs on the beach!

Hey, when you're on a cruise for work and you get 2 hours off, you head for the beach, but don't get too dirty! No time for a shower before your shift starts.

Who is this red scallywag?

A week ago I got off a Disney cruise. Cruises are the way to vacation, and nobody does it like Disney! It's normally a tad more expensive, but I really think it's worth it.

I was lucky enough to have a great travel companion ... Big Red! Big Red is our office's version of 'flat stanley'.

I handed Captain Jack Sparrow Big Red and said, "can you hold this and look confused?" To which he replied, "I'm always confused."

Rock on Captain Jack!

Disney Cruise

I was honored to be one of three selected to represent my company on a Disney cruise this week.

I just got off the ship today. We all had a blast!

I'll post more stories and photos later.

Alaska sunset

Our last night sailing the 'seas' of Alaska.

The sun is setting behind us ... and it's probably about 10:30pm.

Got to love those really long sunshiny days!

Ice, ice baby

Our Alaskan cruise ended at 9am, and our flight wasn't until 9PM, so we had a lot of time to kill.

We signed up for a boat trip (small boat) that drove up close to a glacier near the cruise port.

Since it was still early 'summer', there was still tons of ice on the lake. The boat blasted thru some of the ice to get us closer to the glacier. The ice didn't look thick, but it really was!

Check out how think it is. And it's all crystallized. It reminded me of Superman's ice lair.

Seals

More Alaska stuff ...

Walking off our cruise ship in Whittier, AL, there was a big 'ol seal sitting on ... well I'm not really sure what he's sitting on.

But it's a seal! Cool!

Coral Princess

It was kind-of off to see a cruise ship next to snow capped mountains.

When I always thought of "cruise" I always thought "Caribbean" and "sunny" and "tropical"!

This is a photo of our cruise ship, the Coral Princess, in our last port, Skagway.

Red Onion Saloon

The Red Onion Saloon was around in 1898, when the big gold rush came (and went). I guess there were over 70+ bars and saloons in Skagway back in the good old days.

You can't really read the sign very well, but it says that the Brothel Tours are "$5 for 15 minutes ... just like back in 1898!"

Welcome to Alaska!

In Skagway, Jonathan took a train shore excursion and I took a bus tour. My bus tour went to the Yukon (in Canada), then back into Alaska.

We stopped a bunch of times for photo opportunities, and one of them was at the Alaska border.

Look out for bears!

I guess brown and black bears are everywhere in Alaska. When we were touring in a residential area, all the garbage cans (it was garbage day) were closed, and bungee cords were wrapped all around them.

The garbage cans in downtown were all large metal cans. They all involved a semi-complex way of opening (or maybe it was only complex for me).

Juneau

This was the scene we saw for 7 days in a row. Snow covered mountains were everywhere!  We never got tired of sitting on our cruise deck (in a lounge chair, all bundled up) and looking at the mountains.

One cool part of our cruise was the fact that we never cruised in the open ocean.  We were always really close to land, so there was always glaciers and mountain ranges to look at.

These particular mountains were in Juneau.

It's kind-of odd to be back in Florida and there are no mountains in sight.

You've got to hand it to Alaska, it was a very pretty, clean, and green state!  Now I'm motivated to plant some more trees.

Burger Queen

Check out this lovely burger joint we saw in Ketchican. The cute little Burger Queen.

Eagles!

We did a shore excursion in Juneau. One stop we made was near an old church with a great view.

While we were getting back on the bus, about 10 bald eagles put on a show for us. They were flying circles all around us.

Taking a photo of them was nearly impossible, but I wanted some proof I saw an eagle!

Mendenhall Glacier

The main shore excursion we did in Juneau was a trip to Mendenhall Glacier. I'm not sure why it is so famous, but it was a pretty cool glacier.

In hindsight, we saw about 10 more glaciers through out the cruise.

It's hard to see from the photo, but there is a bright blue spot on the bottom left side of the glacier. This is where a spot fell off the glacier over night. We never saw a glacier 'calve' (meaning, have a giant piece fall off), but when they do calve, it shows off the bright blue-ness of a glacier. I guess glaciers are so compact, that the only color that can penetrate thru them is blue. It's the same concept as deep underwater.

It wasn't very cold in Juneau, but when we got close to the glacier it was downright cold!!! I felt bad for the US Parks worker who was sitting right outside the glacier.

Ketchican

Our first stop was Ketchican, Alaska. We were only there until 1:30pm, so we had to hussle to see everything.

We didn't have any plans, but we found a walking tour map, so we started walking! Jonathan knows it's not a real vacation unless we walk a zillion miles around towns.

Each Alaskan city we visited had dock full of fishing boats.