| POSTCARDS FROM THE CARIBBEAN |
INTRODUCTION |
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Introduction
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Cast of Characters
The premiseVictor’s parents, Wellington and Darlene, are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year. They invited their kids to join them on a Caribbean cruise on the Disney Cruise Line April 5-12, 2003. Except for Sally, none of us had been on a cruise before, and most of us hadn't been in the Caribbean at all. This was going to be an adventure for everyone! I often keep a trip journal to document each day's activities on vacation, and sometimes polish it up to turn it into a trip report worthy of publication on the site. This practice began out of laziness, because I didn't want to write the same e-mail messages repeatedly to share our vacation experiences with friends and family. I may be the only one to enjoy these trip reports anymore, but it's my web site so I can do what I want with it! I have included a small selection of the several hundred pictures we took over the week. They appear on each page as thumbnails, so you'll have to click them to get the full size photos. I hope to add more once the rest of our group gets their film processed. A little backgroundThe Disney Cruise Line offers a variety of cruises on their two ships, Magic and Wonder. We were on the Disney Magic for a 7-day tour of the Eastern Caribbean, with ports of call in St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Castaway Cay, Disney’s island in the Bahamas. In the months before we embarked, I found a few very helpful web sites on the Disney cruise line. I also purchased PassPorter’s Field Guide to the Disney Cruise Line and its Caribbean Ports of Call, a book containing extremely detailed information that gave me a good idea of what to expect. Directions to these web sites and more are found on the Links section of my trip report, in case you’re interested in researching a cruise yourself. One site I depended on, the Disney Information System (DIS), has a message board that enabled me to “meet” other people we would be cruising with on April 5. A brilliant DIS member suggested we wear green Mickey-shaped stickers (found on paint samples at Home Depot) to identify ourselves so we could meet in person. I didn't cross paths with as many DISers as I'd hoped to, but the ones I did meet were wonderful people! And finally, Ed, whose name you'll find occasionally as you read my travelogue, is my Disney-hating friend. Yes, it shames me to know someone like this, but it’s his worst flaw by far. He wasn't on the cruise, of course, so I fully intend to torture him by showing him every one of my pictures and souvenirs. Now that you know who he is we can begin.
Our Itinerary
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