Ever get so far behind on something that you almost give up trying to catch up? Well… Guess I have some catching up to do…
So let’s see… Went on vacation. That was an amazing amount of fun. Disney cruise was just fantastic. Everything was amazing, from the food to the shows to the excursions to the fireworks… We got on the boat and were greated by cheering crew and they announced our names to more cheering. Made me wonder how their arms didn’t fall off, but I’m sure they switched out often. After a mandatory stop by the buffet (no, really mandatory), we went to the room. I loved the disney music playing all throughout the halls and stuff… And the rooms were something else. A lot of little details in the rooms that made them a cut above, like little glass shelves for nick-nacks is the corners. Stuff like that, that was really geared towards making the place feel like a home, rather than a hotel at sea.
I guess I won’t do a play-by-play, but give some highlights instead. For example, the Mickey Horn. Every ship has its horn that can be heard throughout a port, and while the Magic has one of those, when it enters and leaves a port, it plays a special horn… the first seven notes from "when you wish upon a star." Hearing that is just awesome. I kinda sorta got it on video… maybe I’ll try to post that later.
Food was beyond good. We ate at Palo’s, Triton’s, and the Animator’s Palette. The filet at the Animator’s Palette was easily in the top five steaks I’ve ever eaten, if not in the top two. It was so good that for dessert, I had another one. They looked at me funny, but brought me one, and it was equally as good.
Shore excursions… Castaway Cay was phenominal. First, I have to say how convenient it was to stop at a private island. The only thing we had to carry off the boat was an ID. They had towels for us everywhere, and bins where you could throw a used towel and get a clean one. There were drink stations and ice cream stations where you could just walk up and get what you wanted, and there were a couple of food places to walk up and get food, because it was all included. No need to go back to the boat to eat, or have to pay $10 for a bottle of water… but I digress a little… shore excursions. First stop at Castaway Cay we decided to go for a ride on the jetskis. Man, am I glad we decided to do that. Talk about fun… They take you about a mile into the ocean onto a sandbar that’s a few feet wide, and you spend some time walking around and talking about ecology and stuff. They almost cancelled the trip because the ocean was choppy, and I have to admit that the trip out there, I was white-knuckled holding on to the jetski. Several foot swells in the middle of the ocean didn’t seem like the best thing for someone who is riding a jetski for the first time. But… on the way back, it was awesome. It felt like I spent as much time in the air than I did on the water. Going full blast and jumping waves was amazing. Seemed like a much shorter trip back than it did going out there.
After jetskis, we went and played on the adult-only side of the island. Just sort of floated around in the water. Fun, although I did somehow sunburn my feet. Our second stop at Castaway Cay was pretty laid back. We went snorkling, which was fun because of all the little fish hotels and sunken disney stuff they had lying around at the bottom of the sea. I discovered that I am apparently afraid of jellyfish in the water with me… even the tiny ones. Very tiny. Still terrified. After that, we went on a bike ride of the island. They have a lookout tower you can climb and look over the entire island. It’s kind of funny in that on one side, you get to see how really small and barren the island is was, and on the other side, you can imagine how much money disney spent to turn it into a luxury island.
The shore excursion at Nassau was kinda fun, but was more of a history tour… Looked at some cannons, a neat street that was carved into the island, some forts, and a junkanoo museum. (Junkanoo is apparently the modern pronounciation of "Johnny Canoe" which has some historical signficance for the once slaves of Nassau.) Also, I was kinda surprized to realize that Nassau has only been an independent country for about 30 years.
(so about not doing a play by play… hmmm… )
Also worth mentioning is the movie theater on the boat. Instead of a casino, you get the Buena Vista Theater… and I’ll take that over a casino any day. Watched several movies on the boat, some at the theater, and some in our room. Was definitely a perk of the disney cruise. And the shows… the shows on the boat were phenominal. Instead of the carnival latin dance show (that I’ve seen several times now), we got full disney productions – Golden Mickey’s, Toy Story the musical, and Disney’s Dreams. They were actually impressive in that they featured a lot of talent instead of a single male lead and a single female lead. And they were actually very entertaining. There was a magician one night, but we didn’t go see him… We watched him in a little pre-performance in the adult bar, and there was only a single trick that I didn’t have figured out, and I had a pretty good idea about it… I don’t think Deedee could have stood to listen to me explain his tricks anymore, though…
There was a lot more stuff about the cruise that was just awesome… like the deck parties, and the fireworks at sea, but this is already getting a little long…
When we were forced to get off the boat, we headed to disney’s French Quarter – Port Orleans resort. That was a nice, quiet resort that had a good feel to it. We spent the next few days roaming the disney parks. We did Epcot first, which I have to admit was a lot more fun that I remember it being. If we had a bigger budget, I could have gone shopping in almost every country. Every shop was competely unique from the other shops that it was actually worth sticking our head in every one to look around. We ate at the Rose and Crown, and rode most of the rides. Didn’t see all the shows though… just too much to do in epcot to fit into one day.
Magic kingdom was a lot of fun, as expected. They had some new rides, although the Stitch ride that replaced the alien ride was lame. 
Apparently the alien ride was just too frightening for disney (even though it was one of the coolest things there last time I went). We ate at the crystal palace with all the characters from Winnie the Pooh. The picture of me kissing Pooh will be buried from the world and never seen by anyone (little characters in big animal suits are hard to say no to). I know we didn’t get to all of the rides, but we hit many of them. Also spent some time on Tom Sawyer’s island, which I had apparently never been to before. The fireworks at the end of the day were better than I expected, and we got to watch them in the rain, which was all romantical and stuff…
The next day started with some good news, which I’ll post about later, and then we went to Animal kingdom. Probably my least favorite park. It just didn’t impress me that much, and we end up leaving pretty early from that park. We ate at the Yachtsman steak house, which is Disney’s premier steak house, but it kinda left me missing the steaks from the cruise. MGM, which is now Disney’s Hollywood Studios, was about what I expected. It wasn’t quite as cool as Universal, but the car stunt show was a lot of fun to watch. The new toy story ride was also kinda fun.
Then, unfortunately, it was all over, and we came back home. If I had to sum up the entire thing, I’d have to go with simply amazing. It might have been better if we could have shared it with family or friends (and next time we’ll try to drag some people along), but on the other hand, it was good to have a vacation with just us and do whatever we wanted to do…
We will definitely be doing a disney cruise again in the future, so if you’re interested in going, start planning now… We’re hoping to revisit the Magic, or the new ship that’s launching next year, in the summer of 2010…
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I put a break there, because I’m not done catching up, but that’s about all I have to say on the vacation. In other news, I’m now a certified instructor. That probably doesn’t mean much to anyone, but basically, after two years at work, and more trouble than I can explain here, including a 6-7 hour oral board exam, the powers that be at NASA have declared that I am knowledgeable enough and trustworthy enough to represent my group in meetings and by myself in fully integrated simulations. This is actually a pretty big deal… I run a console where I’m monitoring 17 monitors worth of data, controlling the ISS ECLSS model, directing crew, and coordinating emergencies, and lots of other stuff, while we have up to six control centers in four countries watching data and reacting accordingly. A screwup costs somewhere around $100,000/hour, and one screwup from me can take up to four hours to correct. Needless to say, they don’t like it when you screw up.
Anyway, that’s why I’ve been quiet here, lately… finishing up the certification process has been a headache. Hopefully it’ll be a little less busy for me, now… Plus, work just moved to a 9/80 schedule, so hopefully I’ll be getting every other Friday off work. We’ll see if that actually happens.
Oh, and the "storm of the century" as Troy put it. Tropical Storm Eduoard, or however you spell it. I’ve seen camels spit harder than I saw the storm rain. But then again, I slept through most of it. It was a very boring storm.
I have more to write, but I think that’s enough for now…