Today Joe got the chance to go flying with a friend in a Cessna 172R (N2221R) for about 2 hours of flight time from Lakeland Airport (LAL) down to Fort Myers beach area and back again. There were many times during the trip that he took over doing the actual flying. Need I mention it is definitely NOT like driving a car??
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So, this week (Mon-Sat), we found ourselves taking a staycation at Kidani Village in a DVC 2-Bedroom Villa with a view of the Sunset Savanna (room 7666, Pumbaa section). Although the room was cool to stay in, and liked the decor, you will find it to be far from food and other activities.
While we stayed there, Daisy found herself staying at Best Friends Pet Care at Walt Disney World.
During the week we were able to visit all four theme parks, even though Tuesday wound up getting rained out while we were at Hollywood Studios due to the thunderstorms all day.
Today Joe was able to go scuba diving at Epcot Seas Adventures’ DiveQuest.
It takes place in their 5.7-million-gallon saltwater aquarium. During the walking parts of our tour they were also able to see manatees and dolphins in their tanks (from outside their backstage tanks).
Total time for the actual dive was 40 minutes with the temperature of the water at 78 F and visibility of 203 ft – a lot better than it was like while learning to dive at Lake Mead.
The animal species that were in the aquarium were: sand tiger shark, brown/sandbar shark, black-nose shark, southern stingray, cow-nose stingray, bow-mouth guitarfish, guitarfish, loggerhead sea turtle, black-blotch ray, honeycomb Ray, porcupine Ray, leopard ray, cow-tail ray, bonnet head shark, zebra shark, and spotted eagle ray.
One of my favorite to swim with was Kat, a bow-mouth guitarfish – looks like a mix of a shark and a ray.
Tonight we went to the Medieval Times dinner show with Lizzy’s Grammy and Papa.
Early this morning, the four of us boarded an airplane, heading for Florida – where our new home will be, near the Walt Disney World resort.
Lizzy has been up at Camp Stimson since Monday for girl’s camp. She was supposed to be up there until Saturday, but due to weather they were evacuated.
Today we returned from an 11-night Southern Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy, cruising a total of 3,458 nautical miles.
Our ports of call were (1) Oranjestad, Aruba, (2) Bridgetown, Barbados, (3) Fort-de-France, Martinique, (4) Basseterre, St. Kitts, (5) Tortola, BVI and (6) Castaway Cay.
Our travel agent was again Dorothy Bond with Dreams Unlimited Travel.
The night before our cruise, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport.
We stayed in stateroom # 2028 (Cat 9B – Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom) located on Deck 2 Mid on Port Side.
Our stateroom host was I Komang Agung Gardiutarna, and our dining team was Plamen Kirov (head server), Katarina Knezevic (server), and Orasa Payabarn (asst server). Our Captain was Fabian Dib and our Cruise Director was Natalie Bailey.
Our table mates (at table 80), Justin and Kelly, were from California, and had two girls (Lauren & Sofia) and one boy (Aaron).
This was the first cruise Lizzy was part of the Edge group, allowing her some freedom to move about the ship.
Embarkation day, June 17th, was our 28th Anniversary.
On Monday, the 19th, we enjoyed our Brunch in Palo, with Luis Miguel as our server.
On Wednesday, the 21st, Andrea put together our own small group of pin traders before the two Officer’s Pin Trading Nights on the 22nd and on the 26th.
Of course while visiting Martinique, we had to visit McDonald’s just to make sure they were doing things right.
On Tuesday, the 27th, during our visit to Castaway Cay, we had fun doing Castaway Ray’s Stingray Adventure, where we got to learn about the stingrays, and then got to feed some of them, after which we got to snorkel with them. Andrea even took some time to snorkel!
The entertainment we watched for this cruise: John Charles, Charles Peachock (from AGT!), Alton Fitzgerald White, and Six Appeal. During he last night’s show “An Unforgettable Journey”, Lizzy was chosen to go up on stage and be part of one of the routines.
After boarding the ship, we were able to enjoy a tour of the Walt Disney Theater.
The end of our 14th cruise (Magic: 2, Wonder: 5, Dream: 3, Fantasy: 4) marked our 93rd night that we have spent on the beautiful Disney Ships.
Today we were able to listen to the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Russell M. Nelson during a special stake conference for the North Las Vegas stake. He brought up two of his grandchildren, one of which had his 103rd great-grandchild about a month ago. Before he spoke, President Stewart spoke to us. Following him was Sister and President Nielsen, matron and President of the Nevada Las Vegas Temple.
As he was leaving, he walked down the aisle and shook hands with members as he did so. Andrea and Lizzy were privileged to be two of them.
Tonight TIP of Southern Nevada hosted a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at the Spanish Trail Country Club.
Joe was honored to be one of three volunteers to receive a Shining Star awards and have a star named after them. The coordinates of Joe’s star are: RA: 12h24m51.82s DEC: +51°27’54.6″
Joe was selected as the recipient of July’s Give Back Award, sponsored by America First Credit Union. He was nominated for the volunteer work he does for TIP of Southern Nevada.
Today he was presented the $500 award during the live taping of KTNV’s The Morning Blend. Andrea and Lizzy were able to watch behind the camera.
He later gave this award to TIP to help further their help of the community.