Day 6 - Thursday (Sea World): A’lure, the Call of the Ocean
We knew that we were going to dock early in Port Canaveral and that we needed to get off so that we could travel the hour to Orlando to go to Sea World, so Thursday was another early morning. We went to the gangway to find out that we couldn’t leave yet, so we popped a squat and waited on the stairs with a very nice family. We then waited after we got off the boat for our rental car shuttle to show up. The same family waited with us, so that we were the first two groups that were supposed to get on the shuttle. When the stupid thing showed up, all these people swarmed the shuttle, trying to shove their way onto the bus/van thingy. The little woman that we’d been waiting with put her foot down, told all those people that her family and our family were the first two groups there, and that it was only fair that because we had been waiting the longest, we were going first, period. We made it to the rental car company (with me sitting on the wheelwell) and got our little rental car, a nice Mazda. Dad got us some brekkie and we went to Sea World. One of the first things we did, after we got there, parked, and took our picture with a penguin, was stop at a show, A’lure, the Call of the Ocean. Sounds pretty cool, right? Not so much. It was vaguely Cirque du Soleil-ish, with tumbling and juggling and music, all of which was great. The story sucked, though. Which just provided more fodder the Bradshaw family joke factory. We saw a show with a bunch of dolphins. We went to see another show featuring Clyde and Seamore, two sea lions, also a walrus and an otter… and people. The show was a comedy thing, which was entertaining. Particularly when, half-way through the show, the actors/trainers got so cracked up because of stupid things the volunteers were doing or not doing. One of the actors actually stopped, dropped character, said, “We’re gonna have to do this again,” walked back to his starting place, and fought his way through to start the scene again. Particularly entertaining. Otherwise, we saw lots of sea animals. We saw some manatees, “the majestic sea cow,” and learned fun facts. These are free, they will cost you nothing: Manatee females are fertile and can mate year-round, with multiple males. So, really, it seems like if you need to pick a sea animal to be, the manatee would be the one to pick. Good times for the manatee. Mom and I fed seals, especially little seal number 65, who we fed most. Dad and I fed dolphins, and got a little wet. We ended the day with the Shamu show – Believe. It was awesome, and cute, and as good as I remember it being, probably better. Lots of whales doing good things. We made it back to drop the car off, caught a cab to the port, and hopped on our boat in time to catch dinner and a show, this one with music from the radio of various time periods. Another good show. Well done. We fought our way to stay awake until 11pm… when the highlight of Allie’s cruise experience began – the Chocoholic Buffet. That’s right, an entire buffet comprised of items made of chocolate. We’re talking full sculptures, like big houses, castles, statues, famous buildings, animals, etc, created only of chocolate. AND food, all chocolate, other than the fruit set out to be dipped in a chocolate fountain. It was like heaven in a buffet. Due to the chocolate, we basically passed out when we got back to the room (and between Sea World and massive walking at Great Stirrup Cay, Port Lucaya/Freeport, and the Atlantis, and the nice, warm, sunny sun). Sleep was good.
Day 7 - Friday (at sea): Cards, deep thoughts, and myths
Friday, we slept in late, because of all the sun-and-walking thing. When we rolled over and realized that it was like 10.30-ish, we decided it would probably behoove us to get off our lazy afts (yup, you can see the jokes there) and go get brekkie, which we did. Because there was really nothing going on during the early/mid-afternoon, we were sitting at this table in the sun, inside, twiddling our fingers, when Dad mentioned a library, with games, like board games and cards (deck 5). We were in. We tromped down to discover said library and retrieve said deck of playing cards before returning to our table in the sun (deck 9). We proceeded to spend the afternoon playing rummy, which I kinda suck at (but I kept going out early, even with ridiculously pathetic low points), and spades, which Dad and I never need to be partners at (because we suck). Lots of sucking. Well, not for Mom and Allie, who beat the flipping pants off us. When we got tired of cards, Mom began waxing philosophic about how small we were in the vastness of the ocean, to which Allie replied, “Yeah. If the boat goes down, there’s no one to hear you scream… except your fellow passengers.” Mom kept trying to reel us back in, which didn’t work. Then we got on to the subject of Pirates of the Caribbean… there was a connection, I promise, I just can’t remember what it was. Anyway, we discussed if we thought it would be possible to flip a ship using the method in the 3rd movie – having people run back and forth on the deck in synch, creating momentum – and if you could do it with the number of people on board – and the physics behind it. To which we decided to submit the idea to Mythbusters. There was a crew variety show scheduled for later in the afternoon, so, after snacks and the beginnings of lunch, we headed down to the theater to see the show, comprised of four acts (not much of a show). After a traditional Philippine dance, a traditional Winward Island dance, an Italian aria, and an interesting rendition of “I love the nightlife”,” we were treated to a display titled “Fountains,” which comprised some of the crew spitting on each other, much like fountains, set to music. Both gross and, randomly, somewhat entertaining. We then had our mid-afternoon naps (with me watching some more “The Dark Knight”) and then dinner. Our last supper, as we termed it. Post dinner, we went to the last show, a variety show with entertainers who had performed earlier in the week. In addition to an excellent pianist/singer whose show we had missed because we thought he was somebody else (long story, our mistake, we pay no attention), the juggler guy actually performed, Edge, who was a nut, we didn’t get it. In addition, and due to him telling a story earlier in a meeting about disembarking about making waffles and singing while he was doing it, our brilliant and stupid cruise director Ered sang a song he had composed about waffles. Yup. Thus ended our show. On our last trip through the onboard shops, I mentioned that these drink glasses were really cute, so Dad, good padre that he is, decided to try to get some from the bar. Apparently, he couldn’t get the glass without getting the drink that came in it, so he, my father, bought two virgin daiquiris, banana and strawberry, so that Allie and I could have the glasses. We returned to our estate, where we proceeded to try to shove all of our newly acquired purchases (including jewelry, t-shirts, hats, and stuffed animals) into our previously full suitcases, a truly interesting time. There was much stuffing and groaning and shoving. Again, good times. We had to sit out our luggage in the hall so that it would be ready for us to pick up when we disembarked. After a final few moments of “The Dark Knight”, we went to bed.
Day 8 - Saturday (disembark): Saying bye and going home
We had to get up at the butt crack of dawn to get ready to leave the boat, technical term – disembark. We actually didn’t think we were leaving until about 9.20, so why we got up at 7.00, I have no idea. We actually made it to breakfast before we had to leave. So then we were standing in the room, waiting for our color (Pink, the color of our tags) to be called. We went from standing in the room, to standing in a hallway on the deck where we could disembark, to standing on the stairs close to where we could disembark. Lots of standing. Interesting times. Sadly, we got through disembarkation and back to the house. Back to the real world.
So, what did we learn? What did we think overall?
1. There’s not that much to do in Freeport/Lucaya.
2. Yes, that bed can hold a person.
3. Don’t eat burgers too fast.
4. Don’t forget where your aft is (imagine all the jokes we made).
5. Si. Oui. Queso.
6. Sea shanties aren’t the answer to making the night a success. What do you do with a drunken sailor? We still don’t know. (But apparently shaving his stomach with a rusty razor, putting him in bed with the captain’s daughter, and throwing him in another boat till he’s sober are good ideas.)
7. No more waffle songs.
8. Who wouldn’t want to be a majestic sea cow?
9. Parasailing – s’marvelous, s’wonderful!
10. When all else fails, “The Dark Knight” is probably on.
No, seriously, overall, this trip was a HUGE Bradshaw vacation success. We hope that you enjoyed taking the trip with us. It probably took you as long to read this as it took us to think it up, maybe longer than the trip itself took. We look forward to many more vacations with the fam and hope that you do, too. Cheers.
Until later.
Whitney (and the family).
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