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Treasures in Winter Sun
  • Jane Ingram
  • Heath Ingram

Treasures in Winter Sun

A 20-day adventure by Jane & Heath Read more
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  • Trip start
    January 16, 2025
    Treasures in Winter Sun
    2

    Welcome to Miami...

    January 16 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Welcome to Miami, and to our trip. (Hoping everyone read "Welcome to Miami" just like the 90's Will Smith song 😎🌴🏖)

    We've been packing for a few days including replacing 2 knackered wheels on a suitcase, and yet we still didn't manage to leave on time because if all the last minute things that needed doing.

    When we finally got going, we got 5 minutes down the road and realised that we'd forgotten to pick up the US dollars 💸 . So we span the car around and went back to get the cash. We probably won't use any of it, but "just in case" we collected it.

    After the brief stop off back at home, we finally hit the road proper and made good time to Heathrow. We did note that we can only think of one time in the 21 years we've been driving between home and London when there's been absolutely no roadworks on the M1. At least this time the roadworks were no more delayed than the standard roadworks "50mph average speed cameras".

    Dropped the car at the Meet and Greet and headed for check-in. It's probably the quietest T5 has been on one of our visits. Though interesting to see almost all the passengers split into 3 types: those on business 💻, those going skiing ⛷️ , and those escaping to warmer places (like us) 🌞.

    Quick lunch in the lounge and then off to the gate to get on the big bird. Boarding was quick - especially for the double-decker A380. We'd barely settled into the seats, and we were trundling away from the gate.

    The queue to take off was typically long of Heathrow, but we did get a decent view of the choreography needed to have so many planes in the right place at the right time on the ground. I think that level of organisation and space management surpasses even my capabilities. 🤯

    Super nice dinner after take off. The chocolate praline crisp pudding was 👌

    Heath watched a film and slept, while I slept and read. It always amazes me how quickly a long flight can go.

    Miami airport is undergoing some renovations, so every travelator was ripped out - the walk from plane to immigration to baggage to mini-train to rental car was about a gazillion steps. Also, seeing a baggage cart saying "Welcome to Chicago" confused the hell out of me, especially when it feels like 1am.

    But immigration was fast - i will always advocate for anyone travelling to the US more than a couple of times in 5 years to get Global Entry. Literally, all we did to enter the US was walk past a camera which flashed up "please proceed".

    After the gazillion steps, we picked up the rental car, and drove the 3 minutes to the hotel for tonight. Nothing fancy, but we like the simplicity, and the free breakfast 😋.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    21

    Meandering up the Floridian coast

    January 17 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Considering the jetlag, we got up at a fairly normal time (7.30) rather than stupidly early, like is often the case coming to the US.

    After a filling buffet breakfast, we hung around a bit in the room before checking out so we could watch the planes taking off. Turns out the hotel was literally at the end of the runway!

    It's been a bit murky and as rain was expected further south, we hit the road to get past West Palm Beach and all the Mar-a-lago vicinity road closures (we didn't pop in to see if "he" was home).

    Pitstop for simple burger lunch at a Dairy Queen, then went for a stroll by the beach . Bit black in the distance, so we moved on. The wind picked up, and the very dark clouds moved away, so we went for a longer walk on the beach to see the Blowing Rocks.

    Some interesting layers of limestone and a ton of bright blue jellyfish that were washed up. 🪼

    Naturalist Google advised they were Portuguese man o' war jellyfish. Good job that I only poked the blue balloon and not the tentacle, else we'd have been off to the hospital 🏥🤦‍♀️

    Walking back from the blowing rocks and deadly dead jellyfish, it started to drizzle, then rain, then pour. By the time we got to the car again, we were a tiny bit damp.

    As we needed to dry off, we turned up the car temp, and drove to the hotel via a supermarket to pick up some odds and ends.

    And in happy news, after a few US trips of not being able to get any, I finally found my favourite flavour of crisps - Honey mustard pringles. 🎊🥳💃

    The hotel is lovely, on the beach, and we have a balcony.

    So lovely, that we ordered dinner in, so we could enjoy the sound of the waves while eating. 🌊🍽

    I sat outside for a while, until it became too cold. You can see ships a long way out and hear the waves breaking. The beach has turtles, but not spotted any yet.

    Listening to the ocean in the dark has been a nice prelude to getting on the ship tomorrow.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    Setting sail for Treasure

    January 18 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Waking up to the sound of the waves never gets old, and we woke up early enough to kinda see the sunrise. The fishermen were out of the beach already setting up their rods when we got up. 🎣

    We were up to see the sunrise but some clouds got in the way of seeing the initial sun up. But there were enough breaks to get some gorgeous burnt orange skies. 🌅

    The break in clouds didn't last too long but we went for a walk on the beach anyway and watched the birds running around like Benny Hill trying to escape the waves.

    Then it was time to check out and headed to the port to see the Disney Treasure for the very first time. Having only had her Maiden Voyage 4 weeks ago on 21 December, this is her 5th proper cruise. She still has that new ship smell.

    Crazy hiccup at check-in. They couldn't find us. Turns out our room had been changed at the last minute because of maintenance issues with what we had booked, and so searching by our room number drew a blank.

    After having 4 people looking into it, eventually they figured out what had happened and told us our new room number, and we could get through to wait for our boarding group to be called. We were early, so we thought it would be forever but tbh it was only 15-20 mins, and we could get lunch from the buffet. Of course everyone else was doing the same, so the buffet was heaving. Still we found a table and had a first taste of Treasure.

    After eating we went to the room, and found it to be Aladin themed (each deck has different theme) with a gorgeous artwork of Agrabah above the bed. I'd ordered a special room gift as a surprise for Heath, fluffy bathrobes, sparkling apple drink and chocolates. Sadly in all the room changes only the drink and chocolates had made it when we got there. The robes did arrive shortly after. We were also missing our Castaway Club gifts, but Alain, our stateroom host said he was on it for us.

    Mandatory safety drill needed to be done, and our assembly station is out on deck right by the lifeboats. I still think it's a shame that you no longer have to wear your life jacket when attending. That was always fun.

    Next up sail away deck party. We mostly stood by the rail and enjoyed the music, and was then in prime position to turn round and watch us sailing out of Port Canaveral - and looking out over all the launch pads at Cape Canaveral. Even more cool was the landing recovery ships for both SpaceX and Blue Origin being berthed right there. We didn't even notice at first that the SpaceX falcon 9 rocket booster that had been launched and recovered a couple of days before was stood right there on the dock. Now that was cool to see, and pretty close really. Heath is obsessed by all the new space race so he was soon happy to see that.

    There were also dolphins around as we sailed out. The most exciting part, for me anyway, was that they played some of the new ship horns on our way out - including the Haunted Mansion one (in the video).

    More in the next footprint...    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    On our way to Night 1

    January 19, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We had a walk around the ship to refamiliarise ourselves with Triton class layout (it's so different to the older Magic and Dream class ships, and 4 days on the Wish was not really enough time for it to be second nature yet).

    Always time for a drink, so stopped off at Skipper Society bar to try the libations, and Heath duly obliged me by having the drink with a souvenir ceramic cup. We both won, he got a cocktail, I got a cup for the collection.

    We tried to go in the highlight of the ship, Haunted Mansion Parlor, but there was no seats in the bar, so had a quick look, got excited and swore to come back when we could. Haunted Mansion is my favourite ride and a big collecting obsession, so obviously that's essential to frequent as much as is reasonable for Heath to have a souvenir mug cocktail. 🤩

    We headed to the room to have a rest and get ready for dinner. On the way we bumped into Nicole, a friend who we would be sitting with at dinner later.

    Nicole and Shelley we had met on a cruise in 2011, and been dinner table mates. When we went on the Disney Magic in September, we coincidentally bumped into them at the mandatory safety drill, and theb over and over through the cruise. Everywhere we had turned they were there too - cruise twins! Anyway, when chatting to them we figured out that coincidentally we were also booked on the same cruise in January, so decided to link bookings to sit together for dinner. What is even weirder is that we have coincidentally bumped into them on a cruise back in 2013, when we (intentionally) cruising with other friends that we'd met on our first Disney cruise.

    Dinner was in the Coco restaurant, so Mexican themed food and a show with music and characters from the movie, as well as other live Mexican music. The food was excellent, as ever. We both ordered the Mexican chocolate tart for dessert and out server kept telling us it had chilli in. Which we said was fine, and it was fine - although much more chilli than I even expected. 🌶 🌶 🌶
    Still excellent though.

    After dinner finished around 10pm, we totally showed our age by going back to the room to go to bed.
    Our first towel animal was a lovely bear made out of the bedthrow and some towels.

    Disney Cruise ships have the best mattresses, so damn comfy.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    Sea Day and some sunshine

    January 20, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 24 °C

    Day 2 of the cruise and a sea day. Woke up to nice weather, warm but not hot. Some clouds but not too many. High of 24/25C expected. Can't complain one little bit.

    OK, one complaint, there is a little breeze, which with motion made it quite windy while we ate breakfast outside. Not a problem until I opened a cereal minibus, and the wind carried Special K across the deck under another (thankfully unoccupied) table. 🌬🥣🙈

    Sea days are always lazy days, a bit of napping, a bit of reading, a bit of eating, and a lot of visiting places on the ship to satisfy our personal obsessions.

    We got into Haunted Mansion Parlor just after it opened at lunchtime, and had a drink each before lunch. Heath again kindly obliged by having a souvenir ceramic cup drink, and i had a cocktail and ordered the Hatbox Ghost sipper for taking home. Yes, I am that obsessed🤩. 💸

    We only went for a light lunch, salad and ice cream for me, because we have the fancy restaurant tonight, so need ro be on top eating form at 6pm.

    After eating, we happened to end up in a shop, and bought a few things, only 4 pins, the Aladdin atrium statue (to join our collection of atrium statues from all the other 5 ships), a shirt each and a Christmas ornament. Quite restrained for me.

    We dropped the treasures off in the room, and as we walked down the corridor to our room a guy that looked familiar walked the other way. By the time I clocked who I thought it might be, he'd disappeared. I said to Heath, I think that was Walter, of Walter and Eugene from a previous cruise. He misheard me and thought I said Walter and Jean, and he was confused because we are seeing Walter and Jean next week at Disney World and he was like, they know we're on the Treasure, surely they would have said something? Anyway, confusion resolved and we concluded it might have been the Walter I thought it might have been, so we'd have to look out for them around the ship.

     Heath wanted to go to the open house at the Star Wars bit of the kids club. We got there, found out there was a show in a bit, so I took him to a different shop so I could pick up the Haunted mansion clock that I wanted. More treasure put in the room, and we went to the show at the kids club open house. I should stress the open house is intended for adults to go to to experience the cool kids spaces on the ship, as well as for families to go and enjoy together.

    Anyway, the show was Rey teaching us to use the force, and guess what some stormtroopers turned up so we could practice for reals. Some of the kids were hilarious and really got into it. No comment on the adults.

    By this point it was definately time to have a rest in the room. There's important eatings in the evening.

    Heath took over the bed while I sat on the verandah enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.

    As the sun started to go down, we opened the blue apple drink that came out in the room amenity from yesterday. Yes, it's blue. But really tasty, like a old fashioned cloudy apple juice with bubbles and swirly sparkly cloud in it.

    It was pretty quickly time for dinner, so we headed off to Enchanté and you can see all the yummy food pictures in the Enchanté footprints.

    After dinner, we were pretty stuffed, so went back to the room to change into less constrictive clothes. Our room host had done evening turn down even though we'd had an early dinner, and we chilled for a bit. It appeared we didn't have a towel animak and we were very disappointed. After a while, it became clear that I was too tired to go back out, so Heath went off to watch a Indiana Jones comedy show, and I got ready for bed. Then i found the towel animal. It was a little mouse hiding on the shelf with Heath's hat and sunglasses case. Disappointment abated!

    I'm just about to jump into bed and Heath came back to tell me he'd just been talking to Walter and Eugene and we're seeing them tomorrow for music trivia. So it was the Walter I'd thought I'd seen. Considering the coincidences of bumping into Nicole and Shelley in September, and being coincidentally booked on this cruise same as them, it was so strange that another couple we'd met before were also on board. It really is a small world after all.

    After delvering the message about plans at 4.15pm the day after, Heath then went back to watch the Indy show, I went to sleep and next time I saw him was in the middle of the night when I woke up. I'd entirely slept through him coming in. 💤💤💤    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
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    Enchanting Enchanté (Canapes to Mains)

    January 20, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 26 °C

    A meal that deserves it's own footprint.
    Enchanté is an adults only restaurant with the menus set by a Michelin starred french chef, Chef Arnaud Lallement. The restaurant is at the fancy level of having a water menu, and a bottle of wine on the menu costing $10,000. 🤯 Thankfully, not a wine Heath wants to drink. 😬

    We've been on the sister ship, the Wish, back in 2023, and dinner at Enchanté was spectacular. And knowing that the menus change every few months means we don't get the same experience this time.

    Enchanté is loosely themed on Beauty and the Beast, and the host is Lumiere, so ue greets you as you arrive. The rest if the restaurant is pretty elegant, with a champagne tilt to it - hence a bubbles chandelier, and light colours.

    We chose the tasting menu - "The Collection". If you include every little course including amuse bouche and "surprises from the chef" it was 10 courses, plus award winning French sourdough bread (and plenty of that!).

    Heath had a glass of champagne to start and I had a fruit cocktail, but through the meal we both had the zero proof drinks pairing. Which turned out to be amazing value and a nice way of tasting some of the zero proof spirits out there.

    Every course was amazing, but the halibut was absolutely perfect and the Wagyu beef phenomenal - and weirdly went well with the zero proof old-fashioned that had arrived in a box with smoke in.

    The courses went, canapés, amuse bouche (didn't catch what it was), hawaiian scallop, John dory on seaweed and sea cucumber mayo, shrimp tartar with caviar, lobster 4 ways, halibut and Wagyu beef.

    The zero proof cocktails were fruit punch, gin and fizz, strawberry split, gin and raspberry, then the old fashioned. All zero proof. V cool and tasty. Not 100% convinced on the old fashioned and bourbon flavour, but it did go with the beef, so it's forgiven.

    So many tasty things that another footprint is needed for the final courses...    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    2

    Enchanting Enchanté (Cheese and Dessert)

    January 20, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 26 °C

    The cheese trolley was brimming with good French cheeses. We could get all of them between the two of us, so we did that and split everything. I think Heath was in heaven. And tbh, I enjoyed big time too.

    After cheese, there was a pre-dessert of petit fours, and the lemon mousse one was divine. I could have eaten dozens of those.

    While tucking into the petit fours, the proper dessert arrived, and this was the only place on the tasting menu there had been a choice. Heath went for chocolate, I went for citrus. I got a super tart tartar and accompanying warm kumquat jam thing. Heath got chocolate tuile - 2 layers of super light chocolate wafer with chocolate cream in between, and a cocoa nib ice cream on the side.
    We swapped bits, and both were good. IMHO, the warm kumquat was the best, then the chocolate tuile.

    Dessert came with a zero proof campari and lemon sorbet cocktail.

    And that was it. A full-on, gorgeous dining experience. We left swaying somewhat from the very full tummies, but very happy. 🌝    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    Another sea day and more sunshine

    January 21, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 26 °C

    We lost an hour overnight with a clock change, so felt like we were getting up super later at 9am, but it kinda wasn't. And most people were still up after us.

    Breakfast on deck, and simple fruit and yogurt for me (and maybe a sneaky doughnut) as we wanted to go to a sit down restaurant for lunch instead of the buffet.

    We tried to go on the Aquamouse water ride but the wind was too strong so it was closed, so went shopping instead. 😆 I did smirk at the lady in the store that said, I'm already spending 5 million dollars in this store so why not buy that as well. I need to try that line. So far I've used "we have a Castaway club 10% discount " and "there's no tax" so obviously we need to buy now.

    Additional shopping done, and it was pretty much lunchtime. Went into 1923, a restaurant dedicated to the beginnings of Disney studios and the start of the company in 1923. It's classic mahogany and 1920's styling. The food was good, rather plentiful. The saladas a starter could have been a main. And the puddings were awesome. Gold rush sundae for me and Macadamia nut brownie pie for Heath. Yum. We did have a giggle at the name of one of the servers- see the photo of his name badge. V infantile, but we can't help ourselves.

    More chill time on the verandah beckoned - nicely in the sun so we could enjoy some warmth while reading. Warmth turned out to be quite hot, so had to have a shade break before a bit more sunny reading, then off to meet Walter (Eugene couldn't make it as they are also travelling with 16 other people including a bunch of kids in the family). Lovely chat with Walter comparing Disney experiences we'd had.

    We also had an unexpected visit from Room service, bringing a bottle of bubbly fruit drink - the gold version of the blue one from yesterday. It was an apology for the unannounced room changes and for the delay in our Castaway Club gifts arriving (which finally arrived today instead of being in the room when we got onboard).

    Before dinner we headed to Haunted Mansion Parlor for a couple of drinks, and got good seats at the bar. We did drinks and then shared a zero-proof restless spirits drink that came on a Gargoyle holder, and some collectable bottles to take home. 😁 Shame we can't keep the gargoyle. The Parlor will get it's own footprint to do it justice, it's so cool and the Imagineers have done an immense job with it.

    Dinner was in Worlds of Marvel with the interactive show to help Ant-man and the Wasp, plus some other Avengers showing up to save the ship from Ultron robots. Spiderman did his turn taking pics too.

    Bedtime after dinner, and there was a dinosaur waiting for us on the bed. Harmless plant-eater though, oh and made of towels, so not too scary.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    11

    Tortola, British Virgin Islands

    January 21 in British Virgin Islands ⋅ 🌬 27 °C

    A beautiful day in a typical Caribbean island.
    Breakfast on deck again, and then went for a walk round Roadtown where we had docked. Tortola is one of the less developed islands, but has changed considerably since we were here 15 or so years ago on our first Disney Cruise.

    There were way less chickens and the roads were better (a little).

    Going for a walk was nice, not too far and the weather was pleasant, not too hot, although a couple of rain showers for a few minutes but Palm trees make decent umbrellas.

    Caribbean islands definitely run on a different pace and have a more carefree attitude. That's my polite way of trying to explain why there were (relatively new) cars with weeds growing through them, and piles of rusty bikes.

    On the absolute plus side, there were still plenty of chickens running around. 🐓🐔🐤🐤🐤

    After a very light lunch, we were off on a catamaran for a snorkel trip at Norman Island. The go-pro pictures will follow after the holiday as we can't get them off til we're home, but there's a turtle video and plenty of fish.

    The trip over to and back from the Island was fun, the waves were fairly big and lots of water came through the windows.

    The snorkeling spot was nice, 3 caves to explore and quite a few fish.

    After snorkeling, we had a stop at a beach where there was a bar and some non-marine toilets (if you know, you know) , some people did shallow water snorkeling, but we just went for a stroll.

    Back to the ship and got to see the outside of the bea-u-tiful Disney Treasure from the water. We were hungry and salty-skinned when we got back, so grabbed a snack and a shower and then went to watch the magic act, Jessica Jane. She was pretty good, though one of the kid helpers got the instructions wrong and the mind-reading went a little awry. Still, it was fun.

    Dinner was the Pirates menu, as it was Pirate night, arrgghh 🏴‍☠️🦜☠️

    I chose the falafel - 3 giant balls. Balls-lady is back, baby. Dessert was a Macadamia nut and caramel cheesecake, with a side of Mickey bar. Can't believe we made it it to dinner 4 before I asked for one. 😆

    Our nightly addition to the towel menagerie was a rabbit. We're getting quite a little zoo in the room.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    1

    St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

    January 22 on the U.S. Virgin Islands ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Second port day. Started out with quite a bit of cloud, and pulling into St Thomas there were rain showers around. The sun still tried to break through making for an interesting contrast between cloud and sun at sunrise.

    We were up early (for us) as we had an early meeting time for our snorkel trip. Confusingly, all the low level exit lighting was on, which I've never seen before (and thankfully didn't last long - guess they must have been testing it early before most guests were up.

    By the time we met for the snorkel trip, and got outside the clouds had mostly gone and it was mostly blue skies. Boat trip to Buck Island for snorkeling was mich smoother than yesterday, but still quite a few people got wet from the waves. The snorkel location was more open than yesterday, but there were fish and turtles, so we'll worth the time. Mind, I am getting a little queasy from saltwater, either getting in my mouth or just too much salt on lips and skin.after getting out.

    After snorkeling, there was short hop to a beach, where we had time to do what we wanted. We chose to snorkel a little in the hope if seeing turtles, who were supposed to hang out there in the shallows. Sadly, none were there, but it was a nice swim in shallower and warmer waters, plus time just bobbing around. Getting to and from the beach and boat was a painful experience- the water edge was super stony. Think a floor covered in lego pieces with no gaps. Going back to the boat I ended up just floating across the stones as soon as it was deep enough to allow for floating.

    We then took a leisurely sail back to the harbour and more of a good look at the outside of the Treasure. She looks so similar to the older ships but is massive!

    Back on the boat with time for a shower before caching the very end of lunch. Soup and salad out on deck. You may notice a theme of us eating outside a lot. We try and eat out on deck as much as possible on a cruise, simply because it's nice to make the most of the nice weather and actually being able to eat outside.

    After a lot of swimming and walking the last couple of days we were tired, so went to the room to read a little and to nap.

    It was an early all aboard time, so we set sail soon after 4pm, it's a long way to the next port the day after tomorrow. Sitting outside reading as we sailed and the sun goes down is possibly one of the most peaceful times you can imagine. Additional we were blessed with fluffy clouds to do some anthropomorphising of. I see Pluto (Mickey Mouse's dog), Hesth could see a dragon. What do you see in the picture?

    Eventually, we had to get ready for dinner. This night we were heading to Palo Steakhouse, the other fancy, but less fancy than Enchanté, adult restaurant. He host for Palo is Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast, and yes u know he's French. The 2 fancy restaurants are in an adults only area, themed on Beauty and the Beast. The bar is called The Rose, and both Enchanté and Palo are the focal points of this area.

    Palo is Italian food with a steak focus. Antonio our server was from Sardinia, but had lived in Manchester for 15 or so years. He got very excited when he heard we were from the UK.

    Palo is an old favourite from all the other ships, so we have some particular faves on the menu. The shrimp and calamari starter is one of my all-time favourite dishes in any restaurant. They make the calamari so tender, no element of a rubbery texture at all. Heath had Ciuppin soup - full of seafood. The bread selection is also awesome.

    We both chose the Japanese Wagyu for main course. This was excellent, and well worth the price. Sides were fried potatoes - or jenga potatoes depending on how you want to look at it; and asparagus with parmigiana cheese, lemon and olive oil.

    The piece de resistance to any Palo meal is the Chocolate Souffle, and in the desperation to e joy it's scrumminess, 8 forgot to take a picture. Sorry!

    But trust me, it's the best. I've had probably 25 dinners in Palo (across all the ships) and i have definately had that every single time.

    Anyone is welcome to join me on a Disney Cruise just to go eat my favourite foods in Palo.

    After dinner, we headed back to the room to change out proper clothes and back into shorts and t-shirts, and found our next towel animal. A squirrel. Adorable. We've never had a towel squirrel before.

    Although feeling pretty tired, we had arranged to meet Eugene at Haunted Mansion Parlor later in the evening so we forced ourselves to stay out of bed, past our normal tendency to collapse in a heap straight after dinner (for context late seating dinner usually finishes around 10pm).

    Super lovely time chatting with Eugene and closing out the bar, then it really was time for bed.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
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    Last Sea Day

    January 23 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    Thanks to the clock change for an hour, we got an extra hour in bed. Which was needed.
    To be honest, i woke up feeling a bit out of sorts, sore throat, and a tight chest. We had breakfast, and then I went back to bed at 10am and slept for another 4 hours. Completely missed regular lunch time, and Heath had stayed with me despite me saying he could go do stuff while I slept.

    After getting up for the second time, we went and watched a bit of an interactive Jungle Cruise show which was funny and had the participating people doing stupid things. It as fun to watch for a bit.

    Though as I was feeling a little off and standing around on a moving ship, it was time to sit down, so we went for our very late lunch at the quick serve places on deck. Heath ate bbq and I got a burrito and some pizza. With some ice cream to follow.

    Then it was time for tedious part of the trip, laundry. Heath got into bed, and I popped back and forth to the laundry room.

    We chilled for a while in the room, watching the world go by, then headed to see the show. An adaptation of Beauty and the Beast but based on the love action film rather than the cartoon. This was excellent, although they are obviously still working through some technical teething problems for a new show on a new ship.

    Dinner was back in Worlds of Marvel for a celebration of the Avengers, and heroes Groot and Rocket form Guardians join in, and I won't spoil it but Groot does super sweet thing for Rocket (so yes, i almost cried, but it's not hard to make me cry at stuff). Dinner also came with a juice accident, me spilling a whole glass of orange juice across the table 🤦‍♀️
    Our server, Dash, made the embarrassment go away by bringing extra dessert. 😃 though i am convinced the blueberry cheesecake resembled a boob (with a super large nipple admittedly). I'm not always the completely Disney safe person 🤣🤣🤣

    Our assistant server, Rodrigo, came round with gifts, little ducks, I got the pink duck with hearts 💕 and Heath got the very normal looking duck. I think Rodrigo got me, but not sure he understands how weird Heath is 😜.

    After dinner, it was bedtime, so back to the room to find a Peacock 🦚 in our room. We 're running out of space on the sofa with all these cool animals.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    Hitchhiking ghosts & Kelvin our favourite bartender (had him on the Wish too), & he knows my name.The Mariner souvenir cupThe Mariner and Parlor bride cups, and the 3 soda bottles we could get

    Haunted Mansion Parlor

    January 23 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    My favourite ride at Disney Parks is Haunted Mansion, and I buy an unreasonably large amount of merchandise from it.

    Having a bar themed on this ride was reason enough for me to justify coming in this cruise.

    The bar isn't just a bar. It is an experience, it's like you stepped out of your doom buggy on the ride and are wandering around and sitting in the attraction having drinks.

    The Imagineers have knocked it out the park with this. It is full of familiar mods to the ride, but with its own story about being on an ocean liner. There are magical elements from the ride, ghosts in the mirror, paintings that change, skeleton fish in the fish tank, and a ton of lighting effects. The level of detail is sublime.

    It is easily the best thing they have done on one of the ships yet, and there's been some pretty special things done on other ships already.

    Disney know what they are doing, they have souvenir cups, which as you'll have seen we've been getting, and they have special Haunted Mansion Parlor sodas, so of course those bottles are required too. It's a shame, they already ran out if the Cola soda, so my collection is incomplete. Or as Heath pointed out, that's just a reason to come back. Possibly becoming the most expensive cola drink in the history of man, but if the shoe fits 🤣

    We haven't been in every day, but near as damn it.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    1

    Castaway Cay

    January 24 on the Bahamas ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    Castaway Cay (pronounced key) was the first private beach for Disney Cruise Line. The island is also known as Gorda Cay.

    Disney own the whole island but use only a tiny portion of it for guests, basically 3 beach areas and some cycling/hiking trails. The rest of the island is looked after by Disney as a nature preserve with lots of birds using the island because so much of it is undisturbed.

    Woke up still feeling a bit lousy but not super sick, just "annoyingly slightly off" sick.

    Breakfast up at the buffet, and i did start with fruit and yogurt, but as its Castaway day, there's Mickey churros, so it would be rude to day no to those on the only day they are available. 😜

    It's a little breezy and cloudy, so not a perfect beach day, but tbh that's not the end of the world. It's still warmer than home, though 😆

    We got off ship and caught the tram up to Serenity Bay, the adults only beach, and saw both sets of friends we know on this cruise there (Nicole and Shelley; and Eugene and Walter).

    It was really breezy but still nice. Few spots of rain, so we put on our waterproofs, at which point it felt like going on a beach holiday in the UK in the summer. In waterproofs, sat on the beach also in swimsuit. We did go for a paddle in the water, and the sun tried to poked through. Heath got ice cream as they didn't have any hot drinks, so he declared ice cream the next best thing. 😁

    To be honest, after a little attempt by the sun to come through, the clouds kept getting thicker so we decided to grab lunch, hit the shops and then head back to the ship, capturing some pics of the island and ship on the walk back.

    Dinner was back in Coco, and more tortilla chips. Which was lucky as our amazing server forgot to take an order from Heath at first, which was after we'd got to the table for it to be set for the wrong number of people and Heath having a kids menu. 🤣

    Poor Dash, so apologetic, and said Heath was the most important person at the table, but I quickly reassured her that he knows his place 😜

    The show during dinner was cool. Day of the dead celebration, lots of singing and dancing and some of the skeleton family from Coco.

    Dinner was lovely and sat around chatting with Nicole and Shelley awhile and then also with Rodrigo and Dash. Dash wanted to sneak us into her room so she could keep serving us cos we were so calm and easy to get along with (seems like the press preview cruises were full of entitled *&^&s. Eventually we had to go to the room to finish packing and go to bed. Our last towel animal wasn't an animal but a heart. ❤️ our collection from the week was finally complete.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    1

    Debarkation and off around the World

    January 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    So a week of cruising came to an end. In a flash, like always, and we were back in Port Canaveral.
    As we were meeting Amy and Jason later in the day, we had decided to walk off with all our luggage early. Virtually no line, and only a short wait for the bus to the car rental. It was chilly in Florida, only around 8 degrees when we got off the ship.

    We collected the car and did the obligatory supermarket stop to get cereal, and drinks for the next few days, and more cough/cold meds. Still got a sore throat, and still coughing a little.

    We took the scenic drive to avoid toll roads and avoided the snarled up I-4 freeway entirely, which is always a win.

    We got to the resort pretty early, and the room wasn't ready but we could get our park tickets activated and ready to go. The heaters att he hotel entrance give you an idea of how chilly it is. I've never seen them put before. Also the fact that we were in trousers, not shorts was also a giveaway. First time in trousers in a Florida Disney park.

    We set off to Epcot to meet Amy and Jason, and tbh it warmed up quick. Coats were unnecessary and the sun was out. Selfie in front of Spaceship Earth (the geodesic dome) and a wander through the new gardens, and to see the Dreamer statue of Walt.

    We met Amy and Jason in France, and as the lines were long for food carts we went for ice cream, in a warmed brioche. With bread involved it counts as real food and not a snack. Heath was still hungry so was ecstatic when we walked past a turkey leg stand. Nice and juicy.
    We mostly wandered round world showcase talking and catching up, before stopping in the Odyssey building for a Figment popcorn bucket. Amy and I "needed" it, and the guys had no say. 😆 These things are so popular that there is a special mobile ordering option and pick up line for them.

    We chilled in Odyssey for a while, then did a bit of browsing in stores and trying of the free soda samples in Club Cool. Heath persuaded Jason to try Beverly for the first time ever. It's awful. If you know, you know. Jason tried a sip, thought it was fine, and glugged the rest. Promptly realising how gross it really is. 🤣

    By this time, I was flagging somewhat, so Heath and I went totally he hotel to take our luggage to the room, and arranged to meet Amy and Jason at Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL) for dinner at Jiko.

    After a little rest in the room, we drove over to AKL. We've never been out here, but I've always wanted to try the food at Jiko, so this was a good day. The lodge is a cool hotel, with rooms overlooking the savannah - part of Animal Kingdom park, where you can see animals. There were a few things around near the hotel, including a giraffe.

    We met up for a drink and then headed to dinner. There's an open kitchen part and the atmosphere was lovely. We had some gorgeous food. Wild boar tenderloin as a starter, and then I had venison. Heath had a seafood tagine - which appeared to have one of Ursulas tentacles on it. Not feeling optimistic for his chances when we go on the Little Mermaid Ride in Magic Kingdom.

    We were stuffed and skipped dessert, which shows how stuffed and poorly I felt! We browsed the store in the hotel and had a very strange discussion where Heath got confused and thought sanitizer, was sanitary products, and he couldn't understand why you could buy a carrier to clip to your bag for tampons. He was tired, but it was v funny.

    We drove back to the hotel and dropped Amy and Jason at theirs, which is really close before heading back to our room in the Mighty Ducks building, and to bed. 💤💤💤    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    Animal Kingdom and that f@#£ing cold

    January 26 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    We were up reasonably early to head to Animal Kingdom for breakfast with characters. We picked up Amy and Jason on our way and parked in the Unicorn 🦄 parking lot. Win!

    I was feeling a little better, so all seemed good. We got into the park quickly and walked up to where breakfast was with stops to try and see some of our favourite animals along the way, though none were playing ball.

    At least breakfast was ready and waiting. We ate plenty and had fun with characters. Apparently, Mickey did not cook it all for us, and Donald had eaten plenty of it and was full.

    For scientific purposes, it was necessary for a test to be conducted between Mickey waffles and Simba waffles. The conclusion was that they tasted the same, but the feel was very different. Simba won on crunchy bits, whereas Mickey won on whether the next bite was a surprise or not (random syrup distribution). Ultimately, Mickey won - you can't beat the classic.

    After breakfast, we waited for the Safari. It was probably the longest I've waited for it at about an hour, but it was worth it. Got some great looks at the Hippos, Giraffes, and Elephants and pretty decent views of White Rhino, Wildebeest, and Zebra.

    We wandered the park and tried to see my absolute favourite, the well-endowed bats, but they were sadly camera shy, or at least their endowments were. 😉

    It was a chilly start but had warmed up quick, so it was definitely time for a drink. Amy and Jason had cocktails, and Heath and I had Dole Whip floats. There was a mix-up with my hoarse voice, and we ended up with an extra one. Oh well, not the end of the world to have to eat more dole whip.

    After the refreshment break we went to It's tough to be a bug, where you wear bug glasses. It's cute, and Jason had never seen it, so we educated him on it. Especially as it will be closing in the near future. Which is kinda sad, as I like it, especially all the other screaming people when the black widow spiders attack 🕷🕷🕷 and the hornets sting your back 🐝🐝🐝

    By this time, I was starting to really struggle to breathe and felt a little dizzy, so we thought it was time for a break. Heath and I headed to the hotel, and Amy and Jason went off to find a nice place for some drinks in Disney Springs.

    After a couple of hours sleep I was still feeling dizzy so bailed on the rest of the day, after much deliberating because it meant missing dinner with Amy, Jason, and Walter and Jean (not Walter and Eugene, v confusing I know). Heath went out for dinner, and I slept in the hope of recovery for future days. Stupid f!&^@ing cold and cough.

    And it turns out nobody took a picture while they were out. 🙃    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    Hollywood Studios - using the force

    January 27 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We got up late for a park day, cos guess what, I was still feeling icky. And had a slow start to the morning. We took our time and headed out to Hollywood Studios, where all of the Star Wars related stuff is. We had lunch and bar reservations that we didn't want to miss.

    We got into the park and meandered to Star Tours, to go explore the bus service of the Galactic Republic.

    After a jaunt to a couple of planets, we stopped in to say goodbye, FOR-EVER, to Muppets 3D, which is closing in June. I am very sad about this closure, as it's always been a favourite in our family, ever since my first trip to Florida in 1992, and my dad was kissed by Miss Piggy and I was kissed by Bean Bunny. Ah, good times.

    Still, after bidding farewell to Muppets 3D we headed to Batuu (Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge). We caught up with Mando and Grogu, and did a single rider line to cut down the wait time on Rise of the Resistance.

    Pretty obviously, we spent plenty of time hanging out in Batuu, watched the "bad guys" strut around and had some pictures taken.

    We did actually leave Batuu at lunchtime to go to Toy Story Land and have family style BBQ at Round-up Rodeo, where you are shrunk to the size of toys and have lunch in the toyboy surrounded by Andy's toys (all makes perfect sense as long as you know Toy Story).

    After lunch, we thought we'd go back to Batuu and fly the millennium falcon, smuggle some coaxium for Hondo Ohnaka, before dropping into Oga's Cantina for a cocktail or two and to listen to some tunes spun by the best co-pilot turned DJ in the Galaxy (R3x).

    By the time we'd had drinks, I was struggling with sore ribs and breathing and Heath felt tired out, so we left the Studios early to get an early night. As we walked to the car, we found a fork in the road. Maybe the Disney- gods were trying to tell us something

    We were so tired we couldn't be bothered to get dinner and just ate a bowl of cereal as evening meal. Even though we weren't feeling great, it had still been a nice day.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    More Animals, less of the f%@£ing cold

    January 28 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    An earlier start to the day, and I was feeling a little better but still a little dizzy and tight chested. Heath seemed to be feeling much more awake and with it.

    Quick breakfast and get ready and out the door by 7.15 to get to early hours at Animal Kingdom.

    We didn't quite make it for rope-drop by 10 minutes, and in that time, the lonely for Avatar ride was 60 minutes. We chose to go ride Everest a couple of times and Dinosaur a couple of times as well. We even got to do some of our traditional crazy posing for on-ride cameras.

    After stretching my ability to see straight after a few coasters on the trot, we decided a calm, serene safari ride was what we needed, so we went back to see the animals on the safari tour. Lots of Elephants 🐘 and Zebra 🦓 out this time, and a better look at the Lions 🦁.

    We also went down the Gorilla Falls Trail to look for other animals and found the cutest young gorilla. His family were all asleep, and he was clearly bored, so he was posing and gurning at the humans. It was cute.

    A quick snack of a small pizza to share and then off to wait in the slow lines for both Avatar rides. The big ride is cool, a big 3D flying motion simulator like you're sat on a banshee (from the Avatar films). While in line we played with an Avatar photo filter, can you believe that's the best picture we could capture? And looked at all the film themed exhibits in the line. We've never been in the standby lone for the ride before, so we've got to see these for the first time.

    After flying over Pandora on a banshee, we went for lunch and then watched the Finding Nemo musical show. We love the music from this. It's the first thing the songwriters from Frozen did for Disney, and it has so much charm, as well as humour.

    We were starting to be tired by this point, so we decided to do a farewell ride of Dinosaur (which closes sometime this year) and It's Tough to be a bug (also closing sometime soon).
    Got to say Not Our Dino one last time, and wave bye to the little bugs.

    After those farewells, we walked back to the car, slowly as the day was catching up with me, and went back to the hotel.

    Heath took a quick dip in the pool, and then we went to the hotel café to get some dinner. Kind of Chinese, ish. Tasted fine and came with rice, so nice to not have fries for a change.

    Walking back to our room, we went through he 101 Dalmations block, and Heath entertained the pup through the medium of tv. Magic!

    Overall, it was a lovely day, lots of nice things done and seen, with a definite improvement in how I felt, even if the breathing is still tight. Fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow, as it's an early wake-up call. 5.30 am for 6.30 transport to Magic Kingdom. Early night now. 💤💤💤    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    1

    Magic Kingdom and all its treasures

    January 29 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    It wasn't the early start that we planned. Overnight, Heath started feeling a bit ropey, so we turned off the alarm and slept in a bit - til 8.30. Which really is a lie in on a Magic Kingdom day.

    We had breakfast and decided that we would drive rather than take Disney buses, so we drove to the parking lot. It also meant we could use the monorail to get from parking to the entrance, and no trip is complete without going on at least one monorail. Monorail Red was the one that came ❤️

    Getting into the park was smooth and we decided to start in Adventure Land, and move on to Frontiwrland theb Liberty Square to start out with our old favourites, Pirates of the Caribbean, Enchanted Tiki Room, Country Bears Jamboree show and over to Haunted Mansion.

    Back on form with ride photo posing, despite feeling a bit poorly.

    Country Bears was the updated version, and I thought they did a nice job. It's sad to see some of the old songs go, but the new ones work well. And Big Al was still there, so that's all that matters to me. 🤣

    Haunted Mansion is, if you haven't picked up already, my all-time favourite ride, so we got a banker ride in, qith the hope of getting on again later in the day. It was nice to see the themed tombstone that had been added to honour Dave Smith, who used to head up the Disney Archives, and who we had met on a tour of the Disney Studio and Archives once. He was a nice guy, obsessed with Disney history and preserving Disney artefacts. It was sad when he passed a few years back.

    After riding and escaping the clutches of the ghosts, we posed for some pictures outside - showing how scared we were 🤣

    We had some lunch and picked up a virtual queue group to ride Tiana's Bayou Adventure, the newly rethemed Splash Mountain. I loved Brer Rabbit and the old Splash theming, but being from Song of the South made it so problematic. The new theming on Tiana (Princess and the frog) and Louisiana is perfect. And even more colourful and fun than old Splash. This was done right.

    After getting a little damp in the Bayou, we jumped on the train for a ride around the park, and got off in the back end of Fantasy land, from where we could easily get to Tomorrowland and all the space stuff. 👨‍🚀

    Space Mountain was an acceptable line, so we waited for that. Poor posing by Heath. And then watched Carousel of Progress, so we'd be singing about a great big beautiful tomorrow. There's one shining at the end of every day, don't you know?

    Next, a short line for the people mover so went there for a ride around tomorrowland and to see inside some of the buildings. We sadly had a long breakdown with emergency lights on, which gave us a different view. But thankfully, it got going, and the journey continued. It's way better than being evacuated from right inside the Space Mountain building and under the roller coaster.

    We decided to eat, then ride pirates while waiting for the line for Tron to go down.

    I love Tron. It's my favourite coaster, but I'm generally a NO, once a line goes past an hour. As the fireworks time approached, queues drop, so we headed ronTron and joined the queue at a 55-minute wait. And we could see most of the fireworks from the line. Soon after the fireworks ended, the line length jumped you to 130 minutes. I'm glad we went when we did.

    Tron is awesome. You're riding a Lightcycle, and the viewpoint is very different to a normal roller coaster as you are leaning forward like on a motorbike, but up on a track in the air. We are so lucky that we fit to ride this a lot when we visited Shanghai Disney, before the ride opened in the US, because the lines in Florida are typically long so once a day is about all I can stomach the queuing for.

    Tron ridden, we did some Tron themed pictures and decided it was time to head back towards the car and to bed. We might not feel as bad as the morning, but it was still time for bed.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    1

    Epcot - Figment of imagination?

    January 30 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We had a luxurious lie in til almost 10am. Still recovering from the cold and cough, we both needed the rest. But it was a glorious sunny day, so when we finally ventured out, it was lovely to do so.

    There is something especially beautiful about Spaceship Earth (the Epcot ball, or geodesic dome) against a bright blue sky, and again when lit at night, so lots of pics at both ends of the day.

    We went to explore the newish Moana water exhibit. Heath enjoyed playing with the water features alongside the kids. It was cute, and the statue of Te Fiti (the mountain of plants) was pretty.

    We went exploring and found the Disney in Broadway exhibit that was in place for the Festival of the Arts. Some neat propos and costumes on display, especially some of the puppets from the Lion King show, and the Olaf toy puppet from Frozen. Adorable!

    Figment, our favourite purple imagination dragon, was supervising the exhibit, so we went off to visit his house at the Imagination Pavillion. I love Figment. He's fun and flippant, and he's purple. So he's cool.

    We went into our imaginations, and on the way out of the ride, my imagination was caught by a magnetic and a suncatcher ornament, both of Figment - so my wallet was also caught , alongside the imagination 😳

    As we got up late, we ended up on a new out of sync timetable of eating, so we had lunch midafternoon at Connections cafe. I had pizza, which was good. But we also had the 2 special cakes on for festival of srts. A yuzu stuffed waffle and a lemon bundtcake (tree cake).
    After lunc, it was time for a long stroll around thewhole world showcase. We started out looking at the chalk art for the festiva and some of the art stalls (i didn't buy any!I'm- pretty sure Heath thought that was a good result). We posed on the Kronk and Yzma chalk art as per the artist instructions, and that gave us a kindofa cool pic.

    A long walk round the lake took a while, especially when you stop off to look in the massive Japanes shop full of traditional and uber- modern Japanese things .

    We still had some time to wait til our virtual queue group was coming up for Guardians, so we went to visit Dame Judi Dench and her narration of Starship Earth. We always have a bit of fun o this when taking pictures, from which they create a video of your "future".

    Eventuall, our boarding group for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind was called, so we joined the line for that. Annoying the story room, where the plot of the ride is explained, was not working right, so we had to slip straight to the coater boarding area. It's aA shame, but not the end of the world. The music on guardians is random, and the coaster rotates on the track. We got Septembe, and even at bedtime, that was still going through my head. 😜

    By this poin, we were feeling fairly tired, so we took a walk towards the exit, and watched a bit of the colour changing of the ball.

    Quick drive to the hotel and a light dinner at the hotel cafe. Basic pasta and sauce for me. Felt like normal food.

    It was our last Disney day, and while the Disney world portion of the holiday has not gone to plan through being poorly, it has still been lovely and a lot of fun. Still got a few days left, though, to go to the keys. S still that to do and enjoy 😃.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    Driving down to Key Largo

    January 31 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Today was a bit of a transit day. 5 1/2 hrs of driving from Disney down to the top of the Keys. We took our time getting ready and packing up, even organising the souvenirs and unneeded clothes (mostly laundry) into two cases, leaving everything we need in two smaller cases (and still some space for more purchases 😜).

    We hit the road, and to be honest, the journey was pretty straightforward. 199 miles of the route was the same road with no turns at all. Lunch and petrol stop and that was all it needed.

    Not much to show from the journey, it was mostly commercial farm land - oranges a lot of it. It was sunny and fine all the way until we hit the actual Keys, when the clouds appeared. Shame we didn't get to see the sunset, seeing as the hotel was Sunset Cove BeachResort, but themselves the breaks. It's still a nice spot, overlooking the water, small private beaches, and restaurants nearby. The live music from the next door restaurant was at a perfect volume sat in the beach chairs at the hotel.

    We decided to get takeout from the restaurant next door and sit on a bench at the hotel to eat, right by the ocean and just us. A good plan, peaceful, out own pace, but still got live music. And way less embarrassing when I had a huge coughing fit.

    We entirely forgot to take a picture of the seafood feast we had, but I did at least capture the key lime pie we shared - a beautiful sharp lime while still sweet. Gorgeous.

    We just rested and relaxed for the remainder of the evening at the water edge. Reading, pondering, and listening to fish jump in and out of the water. Not gators on this bit of Florida, I'm sure!

    Relaxing end to the day, which had been straightforward but still tiring.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    1A chocolate man might well be the perfect man, after Heath obviously 😉Outside our room - right on Duval street with a balconyHotel from across the street

    South and south and south again

    February 1 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Woke up to blue skies and sunshine, so we picked up breakfast from the hotel office and ate on the chairs by the water. A lovely, relaxing start to the day. We packed up the car and headed on the road spurs towards Key West. Quick stop for some groceries , and then found a beach park for a walk. The park was awesome, there was a beach and a marina with boats, but also a swimming pool, and fields/pitches/courts for baseball, soccer, american football, pickleball, tennis. All free to the local residents. I was unusually excited to find pallet loads of brand new traffic cones. V tempting to open and borrow one. 🙃

    After a wander, it was basically an acceptable time for lunch so we grabbed a bench and laid out the supplies for what is always my favourite lunch on holiday - fresh bread, chunks of cheese, tomatoes and some crisps. Eating outside and enjoying rough and ready basic lunch is always a highlight for me. Even more so than fancy dinners.

    We kept moving south and stopped at Long Key State Park for a walk on the nature trail. A nice walk and some good views, lots of crabs escaping into holes on the ground, but not much else on the nature front.

    We also had a stop at a viewpoint for Seven Mile Bridge and walked a short way on the old bridge, now abandoned for most of its length.

    We kept pushing south and eventually reached Key West. We stopped again to pick up some more drinks - it's warm, and walking is thirsty work. While in the store, I spotted the perfect man in the Valentines section. Not bad, and could be true, chocolate man may be perfect, or at leadt a close second to Heath.

    We checked into the hotel, which is bang in the middle of everything in the old town of Key West. The guesthouse is an old place, but nicely renovated. Right on Duval Street (the main "famous street").

    Not as relaxing as other hotels we've been in, but right in the thick of things, with restaurants everywhere. It's slightly noisy in honesty, but it's only a couple of nights, and it is definitely an experience.

    We went for a walk along Duval Street all the way to the north end, explored around, and headed south again back towards the hotel. The place is a weird mix, high-end art shops, drag clubs, restaurants, $5 stores, and weed shops. Crazy mix of places and complete mix of people around. Feels like a mad but tolerant party beach town.

    We played it fairly safe for dinner and stopped into the Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville cafe. It's the first one in the chain, and kinda cool. The food was good, Jambalaya for Heath and fish for me. And Key Lime pie for dessert, we were so eager to eat dessert we got part way through before managing to take a picture.

    After eating, we kept wandering south, past the hotel, and down to the southernmost end of Duval Street. We then took a detour to the Southernmost point buoy marker to see it with no line (apparently, there's a huge line time take a selfie with it during the day). So we took pics in the dark. I mean, it's not like you can see Cuba in the daytime, so I'm sure everyone can imagine the sea in the background 💭🌊⛵️

    We headed back up Duval to the hotel to call it a night. We chilled for a while. I sat on balcony people watching, and Heathbreated inside the aircon. Some old town museums and sights to see during the day, so some sleep is a good thing.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    1

    Key West

    February 2 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    So when I said the hotel was a little noisy, I don't think i quite imagined it would sound a bit like a nightclub outside up until 1am. 🤯 I managed to sleep on and off until the music stopped, but poor Heath struggled. He's sensitive to noise at night. I felt terrible for picking the hotel, but he did get to sleep after the music finished, and we got up late so he could sleep in. He said it wasn't too bad in the end.

    So, with a late start, we didn't actually leave the room till almost 11, but that was fine, still plenty of time in the day.

    We started out visiting the Hemingway House, where Ernest Hemingway lived with his second wife. The house and grounds were lovely. It's not a massive house and fairly normal. Certainly not fancy or expensively decorated. The guide was funny and told lots of stories of Hemingway and his four favourite things that he did to excess. Writing, fishing, women, and drinking. Quite a hedonistic lifestyle, especially as he wasn't especially famous. Lucky, wife number 2 had a rich daddy (the founder of Pfizer).

    The house and grounds are full of cats, 59 currently and apparently 70 when Hemingway lived there. That's a lot of cat food. Seems like they have the run of the place, too, with Betty Gable, the cat curled up on the bed in the master bedroom.

    It was an interesting tour, and it was especially interesting to see a painting of Hemingway by an American painter who was the grandfather of someone we know back home. So that was very cool to see.

    After the bohemian literary visit, we strolled down the street to the next famous house on my list, Truman's Little White House. We did stop to day hello to Herbie, the dog, who was on a lunch break in the shade from his kissing booth. Adorable. We also passed the Mile marker 0 for the US 1 highway. The birthplace for US traffic jams, I guess. At least judging on the traffic here in Key West.

    Anyway, the next famous house was much more serious looking and neatly kept than the Hemingway House, but not overly surprising considering several Presidents and foreign signatories have stayed there, most famously Truman spending 11 winters running the USD government from there.

    It was neat seeing the secret service desks around the building and seeing a presidential bed and work desk.

    It was another super interesting visit, especially as you heard and saw more about someone who is probably remembered most for deciding to drop the atom bomb, but actually did a hug amount of good for civil rights including desegragating the military.

    After the tour, we got a light bite of conch fritters and clam strips, along with a homemade key limeade for me. Yum.

    We took our time to walk over to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park so we could go and look at the Civil War era fort, which was still in use up until the Cuban missile crisis, after which a new base was built next door. It looked like there had been a reenactment, so tents pitched in the courtyard and some people in old fashioned clothes. Mostly, they were packing up. Ot was funny cos on the way out of the park, we saw a group of 4 men dressed up in the old times clothes and with old fashioned rifles going into the park. Heath joked that there was going to be a huge inquisition as to why they were arriving late to the battle. 🤣

    The parkinsonism has beaches and nature trails, so we took a walk and found the multidimensional signpost. It was slightly sad to see London on there, and knowing we were doing the 4565 mile journey the next day to go home (but also relieved and happy to know we were going home to Kairi).

    We then explored the backstreet of Litle Bahama and Old town, and had a look at the lighthouse that is in land, but used to be by the ocean until the military dredged for the boats access and filled in to make more land on Key West.

    Tired and hot, we headed back to the hotel for a lie down in the aircon, before eventually peosing ourselves put again to go and get dinner. Some super fresh Thai food. It was topped off by a visit to a cute ice cream shop called Wicked Licks. Heath decided to order a large cup- 4 scoops!!!! Even i thought it was a bit full for that, and went medium with 3 scoops. Still, he ate it all and was quicker than me. They had a cool slogan of "if you don't lock it, someone else will" and themed it around dogs. They had a shirt for sale and pics of dogs licking out of their cups. Cute.

    We wandered the street eating ice cream and enjoying the warm evening before retiring to the hotel to relax on the balcony and head to bed. At least tonight, a Sunday night, the music was quieter.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun
    Note phone and drink in special holders built into trolley 🤯1Jumping fish

    Climbing North to head home

    February 3, Gulf of Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Sunday night is obviously a much quieter night in Key West, as the music ended earlier and was much quieter, so we both got a good night's sleep. 😁

    We got up a little earlier than the day before, but still not super early. We had plenty of time until the flight home in the evening. Breakfast and then finished packing up the bags, so they were ready for flying.

    We got on the road about 10.30 and started the journey north through the Keys, exactly reversing the journey down (there's basically one road all the way).

    We stopped at Bahia Honda State Park and took a stroll on the beach. I had a paddle to enjoy one last warm sea experience before going back to the cold at home. Heath didn't like the seagrass in the water, so he stayed on the beach.

    The park was interesting as it also had part of the old road and railroad, with the original railroad bridge kinda still standing. It's interesting that there was a pipe about a foot in diameter on the bridge that used to carry all the fresh water down to Key West. The marina was full of fish, and some of them were jumping out of the water. It was cool. Yes, i am that easily amused.

    We carried on north, with an idea of stopping for a late lunch in Homestead, the first town back on the mainland. As we drive, suddenly Heath exclaimed, "Seafood buffet." Of course, we had passed the entrance. I offered to turn around, and he was happy I offered. So we had to cross another bridge, turn around, and go back to the seafood buffet.

    Which turned out to be a good choice. Really good food, and included oysters, shrimp, and snow crab. The desserts were pretty good, too.

    As we were pretty stuffed after lunch, we had a gentle stroll before getting back on the road. There were lots of pelicans on the fishing boats by the restaurant, some cannons, and there was a cool statue of two duelling Marlin.

    The next stop on the drive was for some final grocery shopping for bits to take home. Some of the old favourites and stocking up on some better priced day to day meds like ibuprofen.

    The supermarket had trolleys with a built-in holder for your phone and for your drink cup. So Heath tested that out for a laugh.

    Eventually, we made it to the airport, after filling up the rental car with petrol and taking the shuttle train from the rental car centre. Which Heath did not remember taking the other direction when we had arrived 3 weeks ago.

    We killed time easily enough at the airport, as everything seemed to be miles away from each other, and with having something to eat aswell, it felt like it was almost time to go starlight after we arrived at the lounge (it was actually like 90+ minutes).

    Another trek from lounge to gate, and another train, and we could get straight on as our group was boarding. We could settle into seats, ready to go, and to go to sleep straight after take off.

    It's been a really good trip and some great weather, especially when cold, grey, and wet at home. So it's sad to be leaving the good bits. But after almost 3 weeks away, we are both happy to be going home. And especially happy about seeing Kairi.

    Hence, the duality of expressions on the plane.    Read more

  • Treasures in Winter Sun

    Home Sweet Home

    February 4 in England ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    The flight had departed very slightly late, but we made good time and landed a few minutes early.

    After some beautiful and warm weather, it felt kinda similar before we dropped through the clouds into London. But reality set in when we got below the clouds, and the grey was evident.

    On the bright side, it wasn't raining (yet)and was actually warmer than expected at 11 degrees. 🤣🥶🙃

    Immigration was quick, and when we got to baggage reclaim, I went to the toilet. As u wxited the cubicle, there was an older lady trying to get into the next cubicle, pushing an empty baggage cart.

    I mean, these were normal sized toilet cubicles, and there were a gazillion other empty carts, so there was no rational explanation to taking it in the bathroom in the first place, let alone trying to squeeze it into a small toilet cubicle. It is possible, I have now seen everything. 🤯

    All the bags arrived, and we got the car and headed home. Drive was quick, and the only downside was the rain as we got close to home.

    We picked up Kairi, who was super happy to see us, and after some running around, she relaxed and curled up to snooze. Alongside ahead, who was also snoozing.

    Overall, it was a lovely trip, with lots of great parts. Yes, some annoying poorliness, and we're still coughing, but it didn't spoil the trip at all.    Read more

    Trip end
    February 4, 2025
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