Ralph’s retirement ramblings: March 4

Posted March 4, 2009 at 10:19 am and filed under Opinion. Updated May 11, 2009 at 12:53 pm.

By Ralph Cwik
Citizen Journalist

To summarize before the final episode of the 40th anniversary cruise, we have traveled the open seas, enjoyed a few Disney shows, eaten a few meals and spent time in Nassau; we are about to have our “Pirates in the Caribbean” dinner, followed by a pirate celebration, ending with a trip to Castaway Cay.

The Cwiks explored the beach shores and even the shallow waters of Castaway Cay as part of a glass-bottom boat excursion.

The Cwiks explored the beach shores and even the shallow waters of Castaway Cay as part of a glass-bottom boat excursion.

We arrived at our dinner table, greeted our new friends and were welcomed by the wait staff with pirate scarves for our heads – ARRRG!!! The wait staff and many of the guests were dressed in pirate attire.

That night we ate at Triton’s, a seafood restaurant in aquatic surroundings with Ariel, the mermaid, as the theme. There was a special menu for Pirate Night. Paula ordered a seafood combination, and I ordered the shrimp and scallop dinner over pasta. The dinners were good but, again, not wonderful.

The pirate celebration started in dining room as soon as everyone had finished eating, with music, songs and chain-dancing. Dessert was served, and everyone proceeded to deck nine for the celebration.

The pirate celebration was a festival of Disney characters and crew members. It started with a story of Captain Hook capturing Wendy and her siblings, ending with a rescue by Mickey Mouse on an overhead cable. A wonderful display of fireworks followed the show. Disney is the only cruise line that offers fireworks.

After the show, we went to the adult area of the ship and enjoy an entertainer playing a guitar and singing while we danced.

The next morning we awoke with a view of Castaway Cay. This is Disney’s private island. The cruise director announced that we could go ashore at 8:30 a.m. We had breakfast and gathered up our belongings for our glass-bottom boat excursion. This was quite interesting and calming.

We traveled a little out of the bay to some shallow waters and viewed the tropical fish, through the bottom of the boat, without getting wet. Upon our return to land, we went back to the ship and freshened up for lunch. You could eat lunch on the island – Disney has the best setup for guests on this island – but we decided to try a relaxing lunch aboard the ship.

After lunch, we returned to the island and boarded the tram to the adult area of the island. Once there we relaxed on beach chairs, enjoying the surf and mojitos, a lime, mint, sugar and rum drink. We didn’t have to return until 7 p.m., when the ship would sail for our final trip home, but we did return before the deadline to have time to get ready for our final dinner with our newly acquired ship friends.

Our last dinner was in the Animator’s Palate restaurant. The uniqueness of this restaurant is that the wait staff and décor of the restaurant start out in black and white, but by the time that you are eating dessert, the wait staff and walls have turned into the many colors of the rainbow. We started with appetizers, smoked salmon with baby spinach, then a chilled gazpacho; for the main course, Paula had the lemon-peppered stuffed chicken, and I had maple-glazed salmon, ending with chocolate and peanut butter pie.

The main course was good, but it looked better than it tasted. The desserts were the best. After dinner we said our goodbyes because we had to get up earlier than our new traveling friends did because of our early flight.

We strolled the decks for the last time, had an evening cocktail while enjoying the late entertainment and retired to our room. We had to pack our bags and have them ready for transport before 10 p.m. so the crew could take our bags to the airport.

Our final sea trip went well; we arrived the next morning in Port Canaveral, Fla., on time. We dressed, ate and preceded to the US Customs booths and waved goodbye. Disney once again made the exiting portion from the ship very easy. Once had we exited the ship, the bus to the Orlando airport was waiting for us for our flight home.

We had a great time, met new people and had our share of food. We are glad that we tried a cruise, but would we do it again? We don’t think that we would; we like Walt Disney World better and would go there instead.

We would recommend a Disney cruise over any other cruise line. It was a trip to remember for our 40th anniversary. You comments are welcomed.

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