Cruise Countdown

I may be injured, and sidelined from running, but one thing I can certainly do to keep my spirits up is plan a vacation.  I vacationed injured last year, we went on The Disney Magic 2 night NYC Cruise, and also to Walt Disney World (see my WDW beer tour here) ... both times I brought my crutch, and I even rented a scooter for the WDW trip.  No matter, they were AWESOME trips.

But I don't plan on being injured for our upcoming trip ... the countdown is on ... for our 5 Night Western Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Wonder:

I love cruises.  To be honest, my family and I only discovered cruising a couple of years ago, when we first went on a 3-night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Dream.  We had been going to Walt Disney World every year, for, I don't know, over 20 years.  That was our pasttime.  And we still love Walt Disney World, no doubt about it.

But a cruise.  Wow.  just, a perfect vacation.

So I'm really excited about this upcoming cruise.  It will be our first time on the Disney Wonder, one of Disney Cruise Line's original 2 ships, and our first time in the Western Caribbean. Here's just a preview of our planned itinerary:

1. arrive in Miami
2. Cruise Day 1 -- embarkation day!
3. Cruise Day 2 -- Day at Sea, Palo Brunch
4. Cruise Day 3 -- Cozumel, Mexico -- Mayan Ruins and Explore Mexico Excursion
5. Cruise Day 4 -- Day at Sea
6. Cruise Day 5 -- Castaway Cay (hopefully I'll be healthy enough for the Castaway Cay 5K (see my review)
7. Debarkation Day, Miami day
8. leave Miami

In contrast to a Walt Disney World vacation, where I am obsessive compulsive about planning every little detail, including every meal, touring plans, and the like ... what I love about cruising is how much down time there is.  In the 7-8 days of our vacation above, the only "extra" things I planned so far is one Palo Brunch, and one excursion.  The rest of the time will be vacation in the true sense of the word -- eat? sure.  explore? sure.  relax?  whatever? absolutely.

One new thing we will be trying on this cruise will be Palo.  Palo is the adult upscale restaurant on the Disney ships.  It has a pretty reasonable premium of only $20 per adult.  We may go for the famous Palo Dinner, which always gets rave reviews, but we're not sure we want to miss any other dinners, especially since this will be our first time on the Wonder.  We are, however, opting for the equally famous Palo Brunch:

This will also be our first time in Cozumel, Mexico.  (It may be my 4th time in Mexico I think, but first in Cozumel.)  There are at least 20 different shore excursions offered through Disney in Cozumel, from Dolphin Encounters to tours and the like.  I only had two criteria: 1) no beach (since we would be spending a day at Castaway Cay) and 2) needed to include the Mayan ruins.  There were a couple of Mayan ruin choices, so I picked one:

So, we'll see how it goes.  One brunch planned, one excursion planned, the rest ... well, we will REST!

I can't wait.