Wonder, Feb 3-7 2019, San Juan to PC

Someone else's post made me realize another reason Castaway Cay probably had so many empty chairs this time compared to last time. On our first visit, it was really windy so all the excursions were proactively canceled. This time around, they were fine. So there weren't as many people on the beach because they lost their alternative.
 
Statistically this is a good thing, women should marry younger men (or be like Anna Nicole Smith who married Howard Marshall :rolleyes1). The average female's life expectancy is now 81ish and the average male 76ish.

This has occurred to me! Especially at the church I attended back in Oregon. The widows outnumbered the widowers like 20 to 1. And the number of years (decades, in fact) they'd been widowed was sobering.


Off my soapbox, this is a heavy discussion in my classes.

Now I'm curious what kind of classes!


Cajun food should not be hot, not spicy hot, flavorful from the various spices but not hot at all. The heat should be available on the dining table for folks to add at will but not added to the cooking pot. That is why when you visit LA it is common to see on the table with salt and pepper, Tony's, Tabasco, Louisiana Hot Sauce.

I have a Paul Prudhomme cookbook from back in the 80s that I still cook from and I always have to adjust or even omit his cayenne levels. A lot of andouille is too spicy for me as well. I'm a spice wimp.


Awesome parents! I hope our child will someday think the same about us. Did your parents take you to the N.O. Jazz Fest? That is where I became aware of Jimmy Buffet and Parrotheads.

No, we went in early May. The crowds at Jazz Fest would have been way too much. And we were more interested in the history and the food than the music.
 
Now I'm curious what kind of classes!

I teach psychology - college level - intro, development, social, abnormal.... We have very interesting discussions in class about all sorts of topics. The one yesterday was prompted by a study that recently came out about there being a positive correlation between the rise in depression/anxiety disorders in children K-12 and media/cell phone use, which they found interesting until I pointed out that there is also a positive correlation between the rise in depression/anxiety disorders and the number of hours k-12 spend in school and on school activities (like homework and sports/band...)

[QUOTE="cadien, post: 60359829, member: 598963" ]I have a Paul Prudhomme cookbook from back in the 80s that I still cook from and I always have to adjust or even omit his cayenne levels. A lot of andouille is too spicy for me as well. I'm a spice wimp.[/QUOTE]

I bet we have that book. We have a couple of his books and even ate at his family's cafe one time. I miss Louisiana but it was a rough place to work as a female.

Kate
 


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That's a great view for breakfast! We ate around that area for lunch on our Castaway Cay day.

Note DH's rash guard. He got plenty of compliments. As well as high fives from the characters.
That is awesome and perfect for a Disney cruise.

Lunch at Cookie's Two was its usual mediocre self. But fine for what it is. Strangely, they never took the soft serve machine out of commission this time. Last trip, they'd emptied and disassembled it by 2:00. This time we were able to get banana-strawberry swirl around 3:30.
I'm not a fan of BBQ so I've never really liked the food on the island. Lately we've gone back to the ship for lunch.

We watched the entire disembarkation video and they never mentioned Cabanas as a breakfast option. And neither did the paperwork left in the cabin. So after DS was at the kids club, we went by Guest Services to ask. DH had a question for them too, which I can't remember. It turns out that yes, Cabanas is also open for breakfast. The CM seemed to get that question a lot and agreed it should be better publicized.
I think they are vague on purpose. I think the majority of the ship would go if they knew it was open. We always go there for breakfast since the 6:30am time for main dining is way too early for us.

All in all, a very successful vacation. But shockingly we did NOT get a future cruise credit. We put a lot of thought and discussion into it. But it's really time to do something else. We could very easily get sucked into happily doing nothing but cruises but we used to be much more active travelers and want to show that version to DS. If we had the credit, we'd use it. So as long as Disney doesn't announce a 2020 Mediterranean cruise that starts in Civitavecchia, we're taking a year off.
Totally get this, it makes you feel like you have to sail. Glad you had fun at WDW! We typically go for weekend trips since we live close and I think I prefer that to go for a longer time, which can get exhausting.

Thanks for sharing your trip it was fun reading along :)
 
So I can now report that our Castaway Cay message in a bottle made it to California exactly 30 days later.
Such a fun souvenir! How much were these and what was the cost of postage?

Loved your report! Thanks for sharing your great pics and advice! I really enjoyed following along!
 
Our cruise was the very first one with the new Sail-A-Wave Family Deck Party. We got notified just like a week before, so there was a flurry on the FB group of people deciding whether to try to Disney bound at the last minute. We did not. I did see one woman on board repeatedly with the best Disney outfits. The really fancy Cherry Tree Lane type dresses with crinolines. And perfect Hollywood Golden Age hair and makeup. (I'm weak on telling whether it was 30s, 40s, or 50s style.) She was bounding as Snow White on boarding day.

I was reading through this out of interest since I was on the same cruise, and I believe you're most likely referring to me! Thank you for your kind words! My favorite part of cruises is getting to dress up. Hilariously, I think we basically had parallel cruises and never spoke to each other. We did basically all the same activities, trivia, mixology, mojito tasting...funny how that happens, sometimes.
 


Such a fun souvenir! How much were these and what was the cost of postage?

I'm thinking it was about $15 for the postcard and the postage combined. Like around $10 for the postcard and $6 for the postage. But it may have been more.

Loved your report! Thanks for sharing your great pics and advice! I really enjoyed following along!

Thank you!

I was reading through this out of interest since I was on the same cruise, and I believe you're most likely referring to me! Thank you for your kind words! My favorite part of cruises is getting to dress up. Hilariously, I think we basically had parallel cruises and never spoke to each other. We did basically all the same activities, trivia, mixology, mojito tasting...funny how that happens, sometimes.

Yes!! It was definitely you. I love the internet... I hope you had as great a time as we did.
 

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