Duck, Duck, Goose

Whenever I am going to be on a car/boat combination vehicle called a DUCK, I remember the playground game we played when I was in school. We sat in a circle facing the center, and the girl who was IT, walked around outside the circle. As she passed each child, she tapped her on the head and said "Duck". After several Ducks in a row, she tapped one of us on the head and said GOOSE. The Goose had to chase IT around the outside of the circle. If she didn't catch IT before the girl who was IT took the Goose's place in the circle, then the Goose was IT.

June 10, 2013

We were to set our clocks back to Central time, and I did so but I didn't set the clock in the stateroom back - wasn't sure how to do that. I got up at 7, and got part way dressed and organized. I turned on the bow camera and saw land ahead, and then I went to the ship log page and it said it was 8 so I panicked. But it was really 7

This morning my granddaughter started an email using my computer (she has been told not to use her phone because of the roaming charges) and then we went to breakfast.

Granddaughter writing an email

We decided to go to breakfast at the Enchanted Garden and see what they had in the buffet.

Breakfast buffet in the Enchanted Garden

They got my granddaughter gluten free pancakes and I asked for grits but it was really cream of wheat, so I had oatmeal instead. Since we meet for the tour at noon, and the dining room doesn't open until noon, we decided to make ourselves sandwiches to take back to the room at breakfast. I took tomato and cucumber slices and some butter and bacon and rolls and a banana, and my granddaughter took her gluten free bread and some cheese. We put the bowls in the scooter basket.

When we came back from breakfast, the computer was on the dreaded blue screen and I booted it in the safe mode with networking.

In Grand Cayman there are three main things to see. StingRay City, Hell,and the Blue Iguanas.

Disney has a tiered system for signing in for excursions. It is not first come first served. Passengers earn points based on how many cruises they have taken with Disney and the people with the most points get to chose their excursions first. Since we had never cruised with Disney before, we were last to pick our excursions. I have seen all three of Grand Cayman's attractions, and I was not impressed with StingRay City. Disney has a stingray feeding on their private island and I thought my granddaughter would enjoy that more. So what was left for us to book that I could do too was the Duck tour.

Duck tickets

Lining up for excursions in the theatre

We are to meet for the Duck tour in the theatre at 12. Disney absolutely refuses to let me take the scooter on the the Duck Tour. They say that I can only take a folding wheelchair on the Duck tour.

So I asked to have a wheelchair delivered to the room and they delivered a huge heavy wheelchair at noon (far bigger than I needed and very difficult for my granddaughter to push even with me not in it), and after we ate something, we went to the theatre to check in. They took us down an elevator, and put us and the wheelchair on the tender - they had a special place on the top deck for handicapped and also a place for the wheelchair.

Tender approaching and Another tender loading

The boat (not a lifeboat) docked at a pier a little way over from North Dock where we usually come.

Ramp /stairs to get off the tender

Disney person on tender dock

Disney Fantasy

Fantasy was the only boat there. Probably this was because it was June - normally in the winter there are at least six other ships off Grand Cayman.

This Duck tour calls themselves "Parrots of the Caribbean"

Another Duck- not the one we used

The Duck people put me on first and I sat in the back, and they put the wheelchair and a walker in the back. We had the land tour first, and it was very enjoyable. They showed us a lot of the island, but it was kind of bumpy and hard to take photos

Port Authority

post office

and told us some stories about what we were seeing. My granddaughter was intrigued by the colorful houses and flowers.

Blue house

Royal Poinciana tree and Cayman Islands' national tree, the silver thatch palm

Cayman flags

Camana Bay entrance

Dixie Cemetery

We saw some of the little green iguanas, but none of the blue ones.

iguana on a palm tree trunk

Then they inflated some side bumper things and we went into the water.

Side bumpers inflating

Area where the duck went swimming

Iron shore-the reef on which ships wreck

Shore from the duck

Iron shore

dingys

boats around the island

Submarine at the dock

They had an underwater camera

Screens showing view of underwater camera

and then went over a shipwreck but it was hard for me to see the TV screens. We went to a place and they gave us round soda crackers to throw to the fish.

Fish we fed

My granddaughter does pretty well on the flat but she can't do uphill. So, I have now trained my granddaughter to say "Yes, thank you" when someone offers to push the wheelchair. Afterward we went shopping. Since my granddaughter actually listened to the port talk, she wanted to go to Del Sol (where they have shirts and nail polish etc that change color in the sun)

Sign and T-shirts in Del Sol

At the end of shopping, she pushed the chair without me in it across the street and then I met her over there.

My granddaughter with the wheelchair

When we got back to the tender dock, the dock people pushed me up the ramp and they put me, still in the wheelchair for the ride back.

One of the tenders coming in as we are going out

Ship entrance from the tender

At the ship end, they wanted to put everything through the scanner and it was the usual hassle of me getting strangled by my hat, camera, and neck pouch with my passport and card, and in the confusion they did not ask my granddaughter for her ship card and she did not give it to them, so she was not logged back on the ship.

So about the time we were to leave port, I got a call from guest services wanting to know where she was. She was out and about at the time so I did not know exactly WHERE she was, but I did know, or was pretty sure that she was on the ship someplace.

Disney has this weird dining room rotation that they do. There are three dining rooms Animator's Palate, Royal Court and Enchanted Garden. The assigned seating time, restaurant schedule and table number and waiters will follow you to each restaurant for the duration of your Disney cruise. Since we were on a 7 night Disney cruise, we would dine in each of the three themed restaurants at least twice. Up to now, we've been in the Royal Court.

Tonight it is the Animator's Palace. The deal at the Animator's Palace is that the screens and waiters start out black and white, and gradually change to color. The screens came to life and the fish and turtles talked to us.

Turtle talking to us

shark

The little fish formed pictures and we were supposed to guess what the picture was going to be. I had a hard time because the main screen was behind me and it gave me a crick in my neck to look at it.

Fish forming a picture

Screens in the Animator's palate

Pencil holder

We were given markers and told to draw a picture of ourselves (a stick figure) and it would be animated.
This time the two 15 year old boys were eating with their family. I had a "Sesame-flavored rock shrimp and caramelized onion cheesecake" as an appetizer, and it sounds better than it was.

rock shrimp and onion cheesecake (tastes like ham or salami)

It didn't help that the lights during this time were all blue which made all the food look sick.

Ceiling in Animator's Palate

Then I had the baked potato and cheddar cheese with bacon bits soup which was good. My granddaughter had tomato salad which was basically sliced tomatoes

Tomato salad

Then we both had chicken which was good.

Her chicken under blue light and my chicken (same as hers)

I think our towel animal was a flying fish or maybe a bat.

We will be in Costa Maya tomorrow.