Time is trundling on.....we are now sitting at
32 days and counting
.
There's not much new happening with the plans currently in place, though we did add the one item we had been considering for our St. Petersburg day: before we hit up the Jays versus Rays baseball game at Tropicana Field, we will be traversing the waters of the Gulf on a dolphin cruise
. Thanks to some spectacular advice from a dear friend, we decided not to book with Pier Dolphin Cruises as we had originally discussed, and decided instead to go with Dolphin Landings:
http://www.dolphinlandings.com/ .
Not only are they rated #1 on TripAdvisor and just a 15 minute drive from the stadium, but their boats are much smaller than the 70-person capacity vessels used by Pier Dolphin Cruises (which we really liked....smaller groups tends to lead to better, more up-close experiences) and its a full 2 hour cruise versus 90 minutes with the other company. As an added bonus, Dolphin Landings apparently uses sailboats for most of their dolphin cruises, which was a HUGE draw for us......I, personally, have never been on a sailboat before, though Jake has (not sure about Steve). A sailboat!!
Dolphin Landings guarantees dolphin sightings or you get a free cruise on a future visit, but I'm guessing with a 99% sighting record that we'll probably see dolphins somewhere along the way, and most likely multiple times at that. Apparently there's also a good chance we might see manatees in the wild as well......not guaranteed of course, but we have our fingers crossed for sure.
So, with that little change, we'll have to be up and at 'em fairly early on that day so we can grab breakfast at Sweet Tomatoes before heading to St. Petersburg. Our dolphin cruise is booked for 12 noon, so that will wrap up around 2. We will then have a late lunch/early dinner at Ferg's before heading to Tropicana Field....all of us want to get there as early as they will let us in so we can explore the stadium before the game starts.
I have told Steve
that's it....I refuse to add in another single thing to the plans. I told him to take my credit card and hide it until the day before we leave
. He raised an eyebrow in my direction, and said....
so no character breakfast at Universal? Weren't you thinking about that, too? While it definitely was on my radar, I promised Steve if I indulged in one more little splurge, I would keep it sensible and not go overboard (bad pun considering I booked a cruise
). So the dolphin cruise is it. And I mean it.
On a personal front, life is rolling along with more happy news. Jake's last day of college classes is Thursday.....I simply can NOT believe it. My little boy will have completed his post secondary education. As of right now, I think he has a 93% average for his second semester, so not only will he graduate (the convocation ceremonies for the college are held the first week of June) on the Dean's List but we are confident he also has a shot at the elite 90% club. Proud of that kiddo, I am
. He has worked so hard, its nice to see his efforts rewarded so richly. And speaking of rewards, he also found out yesterday that he has been promoted beginning April 1st to the Weekend Lead at one of the two residential facilities which he has been working at as a Child & Youth Worker. This means guaranteed hours (which are set each week as opposed to the variable shifts which he had been working as a casual/part time staff up until now) on set days of each week (in his case, as lead staff for the weekend, he will be working Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday each week) and NO NIGHT SHIFTS!
That, in itself, is a HUGE benefit and worthy of lots of celebration. Supervision of the teen boys in these care facilities is a 24 hour job, so staffing of course has to reflect this. Let's just say the 12-hour overnight stints were not his favourite
. So yeah, there have been a lot of smiles in our house over the last 24 hours as his career officially kicks off in such a positive and exciting way. Assuming all goes well in his new position, he expects to move into his own apartment after Labour Day. Weird stuff for this mom to think about, that's for sure.
Poor Sunshine has contracted a rather nasty cold.....her sniffles and runny nose from the weekend have settled firmly in her chest. She's got a terrible cough and now you can hear it in her chest
. We had her over yesterday for some warm soup and TLC and then sent her packing to her dorm with a survival kit of cough drops, Advil cold & sinus and extra tissues. I am hoping she will see her family doctor when she goes home Thursday afternoon for Easter weekend with her family to be sure it doesn't have time to develop into something worse before we travel. This crazy weather we have had lately.....specifically the return to winter after such an early thaw.....is just so tough on a body!
Nice to have
@dancin Disney style and
@bankr63 back joining in the chatter. A big thanks to them and
@pattyw for keeping the conversation going with the details of their recent adventures in the sunny south
. Its so much fun to read about other people's travels while we wait for our own!
And speaking of Disney travels.....who will be booking the newly announced, $149 per person "Disney After Hours" event? Anyone? Anyone?
http://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2016/03/22/magic-kingdom-launches-disney-hours-program/
... you're a brave girl to be riding the coasters when there is still a wind chill 
.
.
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). We've got our flights, both weeks of accommodations, and our two days at Discovery Cove already paid in full (plus our Seaworld and Aquatica admission is covered with our APs). Even if we have to ride out another low period, we have a good deal of the autumn costs all behind us.
.
. Thank you so much for coming back and giving us a better idea as to what to expect!! Much appreciated!
We met some nice people but also witnessed a lot of guests complaining about various things.
. At the Flower and Wine Festival(it's actually the Flower and Garden Festival but I'm calling it the Flower and Wine cuz that's what it is) drinks ranged between $10-$16, most were in the higher end. I found one kiosk with Sangria for $5 but it was 3 sips.
. It would be rather fun to know how far we walked over the course of a vacation.....and a relief to my conscience to have some sort of justification for our indulgences (Twistee Treat and Krispy Kreme, I'm lookin' at you! 
).
