How to Walt Disney World - Part V

Staying Concierge -- if you can swing it, do this! It's so nice to be spoiled. I stayed Club Level (Concierge) at the Animal Kingdom Lodge at the beginning of October and I really felt it was worth every penny. Not only can they make bookings for you, and help you with enquiries, etc, but they also offer food and drink during the day from breakfast until late evening in the Lounge.

Tusker Beer - Brewed in Kenya!

Sorry it's blurry, these are the hot hors d'oeuvres.

The cold buffet

Evening Desserts with Liqueur in Cappuccino

In the morning, there is a nice continental breakfast offered.

During the day, there are small snacks, and beer and wine are available upon request.

From 5-7, hot hors d'oeuvres, as well as cold tasting spoons, cheese, etc. are available. Along with a pleasant assortment of African wines.

Late evening, they present you with desserts, and liqueurs for a pleasant nightcap.

The service is impeccable, and the staff is very friendly. They also show a variety of Disney movies, and shows in the lounge to keep you entertained while you enjoy your snacks and beverages.

At the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Club Level rooms all have Safari views, I am told. They also have nightly turndown service. And of course, you tell someone outside that you are staying Club Level when you arrive to check in, and they escort you to the lounge, where you get a beverage and sit at a desk to be checked in.

How to Walt Disney World - Part IV

Dining/drinking in Walt Disney World can be as cheap or expensive as you like. I was recently there during the Food & Wine Festival, when food can be really affordable, especially if you're more of a grazer than a diner.

Hawaii - Kalua Pork and Big Wave --Delicious

Wine and Hard Pumpkin Cider

Tzaziki Martini - Better than it sounds

Mimosa Royale 

Most selections were between $3 and $8US. Here's a complete list of the offerings: http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2015-epcot-food-and-wine-festival-booths-menus-and-food-photos

My personal favourites were the Kalua Pork Slider with a Big Wave beer (Kona Brewery), and the Peking Duck Steamed Bun with Tsing Tao.  I also really enjoyed the Irish Cheese Plate and Bunratty Meade Honey Wine  If you can, I would definitely recommend going to Epcot for this festival.

I would also like to do a special shout out for a couple of my favourites which are always available at Epcot - Safari Amber at the Outpost, and Viking Coffee in Norway.

How to Walt Disney World - Part III

You have your room and your tickets. You have probably gotten a link to My Disney Experience, and instructions to customize your Magic Bands. Here's what's going on: Magic Bands are wrist bands which have RFID chips. They allow you to access your Disney account at Disney World. Your Disney account is the other end of the My Disney Experience link. You can store resort reservations, tickets, dining reservations, plans and fast passes on your Magic Band. When you stay onsite, you can also pay for things with your Magic Band (then charged to your room account), and use it as the key to open your room door.

If you don't stay onsite (I wouldn't recommend this), you can buy a MagicBand and link it to your account. So, you still have the convenience of having all your park media at your wrist.

The Magic Band has two modes: contact (you have to touch things with it -- this applies to almost everything), and proximity. The proximity mode uses a battery, so there is a shelf life on Magic Bands. Don't buy one now for your trip in 5 years.

Most functions use the contact mode (for paying for things, you also need a PIN). The one that doesn't is the bits where Disney keeps track of you. This is helpful for emailing you later to take a few last shots at selling you your ride photos (I never look good in mine, so that's a no-go. Sorry, Disney).

This is what a Magic Band (grey) looks like next to a FitBit, on the wrist of a hand holding a beer in Epcot.

Off to Disney

When I get back, I will continue with my series, "How to Walt Disney World" with freshly verified material.

In the meantime, here is a picture of one of my plans:

Watching the Giraffes while Drinking my Morning Coffee.

Freedom of the Seas - Part II

Grand Cayman is a wonderful place, and I wouldn't mind retiring there. The water is probably my favourite -- the colour is beautiful, and it's always warm and lovely. And they have lots of lizards. I am very fond of lizards.

Grand Cayman Water

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Our excursion for Grand Cayman was the Deluxe excursion to Stingray City. I think it was worth it. Instead of a crowded bus, we were on a charming old-fashioned trolley. We got to see a lovely bit of the island before we arrived at the marina. The catamaran was nice, and had a cash bar, so we could relax with a libation while our captain expertly piloted us to the sandbar. Once there, the stingrays were plentiful. The crew gathered some for us, so that we could feed and hold them. The stingrays don't seem to mind this and keep coming back. Presumably for the free squid. I am not quite sure if this is a good thing from an environmental standpoint, but I think the educational opportunities are worthwhile, and at least it's an open area where the animals come of their own accord, and no one is cutting off their stings.

On the Trolley

Stingray City

Sunset at Sea

Our last port of call was Cozumel. I am always a little leery of Cozumel, having had some negative experiences there, but the last several visits have been blissfully uneventful. This trip, we chose the Twister to Isla Pasion. The Twister is a speed boat that does high speed doughnuts, so it's kind of a fun ride on the way to and from our beautiful all inclusive beach.

Twister

Hermit Crab

Lovely Beach

Lollygagging at Isla Pasion

All inclusive is a slight misnomer, however, since the delicious buffet, and every single bar all have tip boxes prominently displayed. The beach is beautiful however, and I never find that the sand here gets hot enough to burn your feet. The water is nicely warm, especially in summer, and there are a bunch of floating toys and other water equipment to keep you entertained for hours.

It was almost a private beach at this point

In honour of it being Mexico, we made an appointment at the new upcharge restaurant Sabor. They start by making guacamole at your table - your choice of mild or spicy. And then they continue to try to kill you with food. We ended up taking half our desserts back to the room, but were still pretty much in a food coma for the rest of the night. One of the highlights was the Aztec Martini, which is a delicious, fairly spicy, chocolate martini.

Making Guac Tableside

Aztec Martini

The following day was a day at sea. It was the standard final sea day, except for the assembly(?) after main dining (sort of, we had to request they rush us through service so we could get there). The reason we rushed to the theatre was because they were going to introduce the firefighting team that had so handily put out the fire and saved our lives and vacation. Many heartfelt applause and standing ovations went their way. It was a high note to end the cruise on.

Heroes - The Freedom of the Seas Firefighting Team

Obligatory Stateroom Shot

Freedom of the Seas 2015 - Part I

In July, a friend and I did the Western Caribbean itinerary of Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. Since I have posted the Freedom before, this will mostly cover the shore excursions.

Labadee from the Pier

The first stop was Labadee on Tuesday. This was a really nice day. We went to Columbus Cove which  I have never been to before. It turns out, I have been doing Labadee wrong. This is, in my humble opinion, the nicest Labadee beach I have seen, and the water is lovely.

Columbus Cove

We had a very pleasant morning, and enjoyed a few drinks at the convenient bar, before getting the tram back to the boat.

Lavender Vodka Tonic (well, Soda)

We chose this night to go to Chop's Grill. I am very fond of this upcharge restaurant. On each ship, I find the service here to be excellent and the food delicious. I am especially fond of the Caesar salad with caviar, and the staggeringly delicious red velvet cake.

Pirate Night at the Casino

 I don't gamble, but I did like the fact that the casino had a pirate themed night.

I don't have any pictures of the next part because I had left my camera in the cabin, and had just taken my friend to the helipad to watch our arrival in Jamaica. It was then that we heard the Bravo code announcement, and discovered that the ship was on fire. We were preparing to go back to the cabin to get everything we might need when the assembly alarm sounded, putting paid to that notion.

It was a long muster, and for those unlucky enough to have outside muster stations it was especially uncomfortable standing in the Jamaican heat, but it was reassuring that the Captain had the ship pull up to the pier so we would not have to evacuate onto life boats should it come to that.

After an hour or so we were moved into the theatre, which was as cold as the deck was hot. But, they began serving food and water. Occasionally, there would be updated from the cabin as to the situation. We would have been released a lot earlier, apparently, but some passengers had gone missing, and they couldn't dismiss us until everyone was accounted for.

After that, some excursions were cancelled, and some were rescheduled. We were fortunate that ours was rescheduled, and we got to enjoy a somewhat delayed day in beautiful Jamaica.

Waiting for our Catamaran 

Our excursion was a snorkelling excursion in the national park in Montego Bay. I can't begin to say what a great trip this is. First off, the service was excellent and the crew were very laid back. The soundtrack was terrific, and they didn't make me wear swim fins to go snorkelling (I swim much better without them).

Catamaran

There were lots of fish in the water, and my friend even saw a shark (probably a nurse shark). The snorkelling experience was great and I was rather sad when we had to get back on the boat.

Fish

Lots of Fish

But we weren't done yet, and the catamaran sailed us to a protected area, so we could see an amazing variety of birds and...

Jellyfish (look carefully)

Sanctuary

Jellyfish

hold a jellyfish in our hands. I doubt this is cruel, since I don't think jellyfish have feelings (although, part of me hopes they do, after all the times the little buggers have stung me).

Once we returned to the ship, we discovered that Royal Caribbean had gifted each cabin with an on board credit as compensation for the day's inconvenience. They had also deemed that the ship was sea-worthy and our cruise would not be cut short. Bonus and extra bonus!

How to Walt Disney World - Part II

So, you know when you are going and where you are staying. You will probably want theme park tickets, since few people go to Disney World strictly for the resorts and Downtown Disney.

Here is how it works: You can buy individual admissions at the gate each day for each park you want to visit. This will set you back an insane amount, because Disney tickets are discounted in multiples. For example, a 5 day ticket is only $10US more than a 4 day ticket, but a 1 day ticket for the Magic Kingdom costs $105US at the time of this entry. So, it is best to figure out how many days you will be going to the parks. I would recommend 2 days each for Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, and 1 day each for Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios (or whatever they are calling it this week).

Base tickets like this are only good for 1 park per day, (and you can't use 2 separate admissions on the same ticket for different parks in the same day) but you can purchase the Park Hopper option on your ticket. This allows you to do multiple parks any day you are using an admission. You can also choose to add water parks to your admission (Disney World has 2 very elaborate ones).

You can buy tickets through Disney's own website (on their own, or as part of a room/ticket/whatever package), or through a reseller like CAA, or Undercover Tourist. Beware! There are also scam organizations that will sell you "used tickets" which "still have days on them". Reselling tickets is illegal, and iffy at best.