I mentioned in a previous blog trying to balance everything. That's me on trips. Everything in balance. I really do think that has been the key to my evolving trip planning. Never too much, never too little. So after the previous day's half day excursion, it was time to push ourselves a little more with the first of our two extended excursions. But man, oh man, we were looking forward to this one.
We awoke on our second full day on the Disney Wonder and once again, we were coming into port. Today would take us to Antigua, a beautiful island that ended up delivering the goods completely. Today's excursion called for...stingrays! We would board a catamaran and sail around the island. Once on one of the far small islands, we would get into smaller boats and head to Stingray City, right in the middle of the ocean. We would get up close and personal with these beautiful creatures before heading back to the catamaran, having lunch, getting a little beach time, and then going back to where we started. This was one of the most anticipated excursions of the trip.
After getting the crew ready to go, Elisa and I were busy trying to get control of the room, which tends to get slightly away from you with 3 rowdy boys. I was in final preparations and was working to put some jewelry in the safe for Elisa when I discovered Miles' own protectionist ways. Here, in the middle of the safe, were Chip and Dale. His brand new lovies were already snuggled right into his heart, and he was taking no chances in securing them in the safe. Knowing how important it was to him, after laughing, I left them there.
We headed up to Deck 9 and to Cabanas again. We ate here every single morning, and it was nice to basically take a different tactic each visit. Whereas the first day, I went with an omelet, bacon, sausage, and hash browns, today I went with Eggs Benedict, along with a host of fruits and breakfast sweets. The outside sitting area wasn't open yet, so we all settled into breakfast. And then, not long after, while people were still eating breakfast, a barrage of Disney Cast Members settled into the area just to to the east of us. Before we knew it, they had ushered us into others seats in Cabanas as some poor child had apparently "lost his vittles". Our group ended up having to separate into two tables to accommodate the move, and I sat in wonder as even in a vomit incident, Disney was well organized. Multiple people kept guard, a cleaning crew was quickly dispatched, and some managers stood at the front of the section, explaining what was happening and offering to help find people seats.
By then, though, it was time to stop eating donuts and danishes (again, a weakness of mine on the cruise) and get ready. We were to head down to a different club to await our dispatch to the catamaran. This one was like an old English Pub, stocked with various game tables. Before we knew it, Lukas and my Dad were into a chess game, Sam and I were "playing" chess as well, though you can only guess what that was like, and Miles was at a Backgammon table. I think he even made a friend with a little girl that was also keen on trying out the tables. It passed the time and we were then escorted off of the cruise ship and into Antigua.
Antigua looked to have an even more extensive set up of shops that I knew the group was interested in exploring, but I figured we would have plenty of time after our excursion. We followed the rest of the group and were boarded onto our catamaran. As with every catamaran voyage we went on (I think we ended up on 3 on this trip), I always laughed at the opening messages, which were always the same. The gist - "yes, we absolutely have your rum punch and it will be flowing like a river, but not until AFTER the main activity. We don't want you to drown." You might scoff and think that's silly, but I will say that I saw a fair few people that had WAY too much to drink on these catamarans. One gentleman in particular, on our Culebra excursion, was cut off from the bar. Yeah, that's how you know you have a problem. It's also jarring to think of how much rum punch it would take to get to that level of drunk.
The catamaran headed out, with Miles and Sam really being our restless little jumping beans. They started on the netting, moved to sit with us, moved back to Grandma and Connie, and then ended back up front. Somewhere along the way, Miles head ended up in my lap and he was peacefully sleeping. I'm sure part of that comfort was just knowing that Chip and Dale were safely tucked away in the safe!
On the way, we saw just how varied these islands can be. The port area wasn't overly fancy, but as we traveled past the coast, you could see the island evolve. It started with some nice, but cozy beach front hotels. Then it went into big houses and condos, where apparently the Royal Family likes to come and stay. But then, as we were getting close to our destination, they told us all about Long Island - the real Long Island. Sure enough, out in the middle of the ocean, a ways from Antigua proper, there was a....very Long Island. This, apparently, is where the rich and famous come to stay when visiting Antigua. People like Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey visit, and the general cost is only about $20,000 a night. Um. Alrighty then. How would it be to spend that per night on an island and not even think about it? Must be nice.
Just past Long Island, we arrived at Bird Island, which, safe to say, is not the home of the rich and famous. It looked nearly abandoned. It's a small island where our catamaran would stop while other little speed boats would come and collect us to go to Stingray City. We pulled up and I glanced off the side of the boat - bathtub clear water - finally! Truly, you could see all the way to the bottom with ease. It was wonderful and beautiful. We all boarded smaller vessels and headed away from Bird Island to go farther out and "become one with the fishies". It was a fun, bump ride that I think was JUST getting to Elisa by the time we pulled up to some docks on a sandbar located truly in the middle of the ocean. It was a sandbar, docks, and...that's about it. I knew it was going to be special when we docked and I looked to the left in the water and saw two stingrays float on by. Needless to say, most of us were really eager to get in the ocean.
And when I say most, it was definitely not all. As we awaited our turn at the ladders that would put us directly onto the sandbar, Miles was crying. He was suddenly tremendously scared of the stingrays - he didn't want to go. This is one of this moments where you aren't sure if the better parent strategy is to push through it and hope they love it or hold them back but be grumpy and know they're going to miss something special.
I, of course, went with the "suck it up, you'll love it!" decision. Into the water Miles and I went, with him holding on for dear life. And sure enough, every time he saw a stingray, he nearly started screaming bloody murder. I took him aside while the rest of the group started getting up close and personal and worked to calm him down. I ended up giving Elisa the GoPro and I'm glad I did...she got a ton of amazing underwater footage.
As for Miles, slowly but surely, he was calming down. But he had no interest in getting near the stingrays. For the time, I settled for him just not freaking out whenever he saw a stingray. When we joined the rest of the crew, Elisa was already taking her place as the Stingray Whisperer. She was all in on holding, petting, and following them. And one by one, the group got to try their hand at holding a stingray in the water. Miles still was resistant, but I think him watching me and Sam interacting with a stingray gave him enough confidence to think he could at least try it. With him in my arms, we finally approached the stingray and Miles not only touched one, but held it in his arms.
After that, there were high fives all around and Miles, while not smiling yet, was calm and more open to where we were and what we were doing. It struck me as odd - Miles is our science kid and he LOVES learning about ocean animals. I would have thought Sam would have freaked out over Miles, but we are who we are.
And then, it was exploration time with these wonderful creatures. At one area of the sandbar, you'd get pictures with the stingrays. In another, they'd hand you a big piece of squid and they would direct the stingrays to actually suck the food out of your hand. It was weirdly satisfying. It felt like a vacuum sucking up the squid. We each took turns doing it, and then Elisa got an extra surprise. Likely due to the fact that her hand smelled like squid, one of the stingrays tried to suck up her fingers! The result was not pain or injury, but it did create these weird red marks across her 4 fingers. When she first said the squid sucked up her fingers, I had a mini panic attack that she lost her wedding ring, but she informed me that those were safely stored right next to Chip and Dale.
And for the next 45 minutes or so, we were in heaven. Miles finally embraced the activity and the sea creatures, and we got so much time watching and playing with these beautiful animals. So many great memories like Sam gleefully shrieking that the stingrays touched his feet, Miles finally being brave enough to hold a stingray without my help, and Elisa going back for more in feeding the stingrays. It was so cool and we got some great pictures to memorialize the experience.
So it was with a heavy heart that we finally said goodbye to them, exited the sandbar, and were back on the speed boats. All the way back, we talked about how great the experience was. It further solidified in my mind just how special this trip was becoming. Soon, we were back on the catamaran and enjoying a nice lunch of chicken, rice, beans, and Mac and cheese. The Mac was fine, but man did Sam enjoy the rice and beans. He was like a stingray, vacuuming up the food as fast as we could shovel it to him.
After lunch, we got to exit the catamaran and spend some time on Bird Island. Miles went directly into the sand (yep, that's him). Sam played around by making sand shoes for himself, and then we walked down to the opposite end and the boys and I played the fun game of digging your feet so deep into the sand at the surf that it's like you lost your feet! After that, though, Lukas and Elisa got off the back of the boat and started snorkeling and Miles approached me cautiously. He was ready (and I think, emboldened by his stingray bravery) to snorkel in deeper water by himself. I got him a flotation device and his snorkel gear and sat proudly on the catamaran while Miles swam around by himself. Granted, he didn't see any fish (there weren't many around bird island), but he was immensely proud of himself and I was proud of him too. In parenting, watching your child overcome their fear creates some of the best moments. Leading up to the trip, one of the people at my work showed me a video of Will Smith skydiving. He had been very afraid and then, when he finally jumped, in the moment that he probably should have been most afraid, all the fear left him. And the quote he shared sticks with me even today - "the greatest things are on the other side of fear." It was absolutely true for Miles that day.
But then, it was time for everyone to get back on board the catamaran and take the long ride back to the port. It was quite uneventful on the way back and when we arrived at port, I think we were all glad to finally be off the catamaran. It was still my favorite excursion of the trip. In the end, even before shopping, my rankings had been updated.
Antigua was my #1 favorite island and #1 favorite excursion.
Antigua also had much better shopping than St. Maarten. We found shirts for the entire family and Elisa and I even came upon some coffee liqueur that we just had to have. And hey, duty free prices aren't half bad! But after about 45 minutes of shopping, the day was getting pretty long in the tooth and we needed to get back on the ship.
I had to check the alcohol in (we could pick it up at the end of the cruise) so Elisa and the boys headed back up to Deck 9 for some afternoon ice cream. When I headed up, I could see them just getting their ice cream, so I wanted a treat for myself. I'm not a sweets person, I'm a savory guy. So nothing sounded better than some pepperoni pizza as my own version of afternoon treat. Yum. And let me just say - Disney Wonder has some kickass pizza.
We got back to the rooms and got showers for all and Miles was happy to see that Chip and Dale were safe. Now that he was back on the ship, he could properly caretake them both and they wouldn't leave his side. Tonight, we would head to our final new restaurant of the trip. This is a really cool setup where giant screens lined the walls and slowly, hand drawings would appear. It was a fun game to guess at what character it was. I definitely impressed the boys with my proclivity in discerning the Disney characters early on.
As for the dinner, it was again excellent. You will be proud to know that I chose just one appetizer (black truffle pasta purseittes) and one soup (baked potato and cheddar cheese). Both were excellent, but the purseittes especially so. SO good. I could have had another plate of those - and NO, I didn't. Okay, I'll be honest here though. While I was good on appetizers and soups, I was NOT good on entrees. I got two - Herb Crusted pork chop and Ginger Teriyaki dusted beef tenderloin. Both were good, but the pork chop was phenomenal. And while I'm no dessert person, they did have a cookies and cream sundae to die for. So yes, of course I polished that off. Did I mention that my pants were starting to feel a little tighter?
After dinner, Sam and Miles headed back to Oceaneer Club, but Lukas wasn't really feeling Edge. He hadn't really connected with any of the other preteens, which was fine. He hung out with us like a mini adult and then helped me go and collect the other two. Tonight's entertainment was a magician show. Apparently this guy one a couple TV magic shows and so I was curious to see how good he was. Needless to say, while it was fine, I think most of us were just blah on it. Some cool tricks, but nothing extraordinary.
And with that, we all headed back to our rooms. What a day. What a memory. The stingray excursion truly was not to be missed and the cruise was definitely not disappointing.
See you next time, where we head to a new port, get accosted with "free souvenirs", experience car sickness, stinky baths, arguing salesmen, and then we all "let it go."
No comments:
Post a Comment