2004—Feb. Disney Wonder 4 nt; Not your ordinary 1st Cruise!--Nassau; Half Moon Cay

Feb. 2004 Disney Wonder 4 night cruise:

 I guess Dad's and my Florida/Disney trip was doomed from the beginning! On the way to the PDX airport, Dad wrecked his car---which was ultimately totaled by the insurance company. But he had the car towed to a repair shop and continued on to the airport and I flew from St. Louis and met him in Orlando for the beginning of a very different "vacation".

I will say the week at Orange lake Resort (his timeshare) was great. We didn't do the Disney thing this year, instead, we went to Universal Studios and a new favorite place of Dad's, The Holyland Experience. When our week there was up, we headed back to the Orlando airport and dropped off the car. Then spent the night in a hotel with a free shuttle to the airport.  This part of our trip is HERE.

On Feb. 8th, we took the shuttle back to the airport and caught our shuttle to the Disney cruise ship in Cape Canaveral. It was about an hour ride, but they had tv monitors throughout the bus with videos of the Disney ships and their cruises.  We chose this short 4 night cruise because neither of us had been on a cruise before and we didn't know if we'd like cruising, so we thought we'd try a short one.  We went with Disney because Dad had Disney stock and a general fondness for Disney.  You might think Disney would mainly by for families, but it was an excellent cruise for just adults, too.  They have plenty of adult only areas, including pool and Jacuzzi area, and monitor those areas so kids do not come in them.  Not that I hate kids---I have a couple, but now I'm older and enjoy a little peace and quiet sometimes!

2-8-2004  embarkation on our first ever cruise:

 

2-9-04 Nassau:

 

2-10-04 Castaway Cay:

 

2-11-04 - 2-18-04 hospital, everglades

It was a tough week! It wasn't my first medical emergency on a trip (Angie in England), and it wasn't to be my last! Never thought it would take 9 hours to go from cruise ship to hospital. Never thought about the hassles of getting hotels, car rentals, flights changed---not to mention customs, insurance matter, accident reports. Never considered trip insurance---although Dad's insurance covered him 100%, thanks to his military career and Medicare. What a way to end a first cruise for either of us!
I did email Disney Cruise line to see if they heard about this accident on one of their ship sponsored excursions and they told me to send a letter in writing.  I did and much to my surprise, they sent us a voucher for BOGOF Disney cruise.  So Dad and I did our 2nd cruise in 2005.  This time for 7 nights on the Disney Wonder.  To check out our "do over cruise", click here: 2005 Disney cruise

 

 

2-10-04 Castaway Cay:

 Next morning we woke up at our next port---Castaway Cay (Disney's private island).

Had breakfast overlooking the port

  
Then we were headed off the ship

 This is the first time we've been to a cruise line's private island and I was impressed.

 Walking along the island

 Love Minnie's shirt!

 Of course, where you have Disney property, you have Disney stores, so we did a little shopping while on the island, too.

 I had read there was a snorkel trail and really wanted to check it out.   We spent about 1-2 hours snorkeling around there---not the greatest snorkeling, but still fun. 

 By then the family beach was getting pretty crowded.

  About noon we headed to lunch on the beach at Cookies Bar B Q. Again the food was outstanding.

 We had signed up for a snorkel excursion, headed to our meet up spot after lunch.

 Dad posing along the way

 All started well with the excursion.

 They took us out to a reef and we had life preservers. With the shallow reef, life preservers, and the tour guides that were supposedly keeping an eye on everyone, I was over confident in Dad's safety. He had snorkeled many times before and although he wasn't a strong swimmer and didn't pay too much attention to his surroundings, he did seem to enjoy himself and do ok.

 So I started venturing off a bit and coming back to check on him every few minutes. On one of my ventures, the excursion boat's horn sounded and they were frantically waving everyone back on board. My first thought was that a shark was sighted and I was back to the boat in a flash. Unfortunately it wasn't sharks! Dad was on the deck of the boat---totally unresponsive and breathing very fast---even had his eyes open, but fixed. I was scared unimaginably. One of the passengers was a nurse and she did keep check of his vitals until a medic on a jet ski met us on our way back in. Dad did come to enough to talk with me a bit, but kept saying he was tired. I was constantly talking to him to keep him awake. The medic said he was tired because he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his brain---but also said he wasn't deprived enough to cause damage. 

I was surprised to later learn that when he started taking in water, he actually was able to finish inflating his life preserver by blowing it up (he had it partially inflated originally). Then he swam on his back to the ship. There he had a "death grip" on the anchor rope. Passengers pulled him on board---leaving rope burn on his arm--and he collapsed on the deck. But none of the employees ever noticed him in distress.

 We were met at the excursion dock by a golf cart with a stretcher and were whisked off to the ship's infirmary. They went to pump his stomach which was very distended. The tube made him throw up---aspirating into his lungs first. The Drs weren't too concerned about that since it was salt water and he was being treated for that. Dad did manage to throw up about 2 gallons of salt water. Then they explained they were going to put him on a breathing machine to slow his breathing down and not tax his heart so much. They also said a helicopter would be coming for him in about 45 minutes and would be taking him to one of the Bahama Islands. While they intubated him, I was sent to my room to pack up and change. Shortly after getting back to the infirmary I was told no helicopter was coming---it would take too long, that that they would shove off as scheduled and dock in Freeport. I questioned them about the facilities there---having been to Freeport. Soon the nurse came back and said he would be going to Freeport, then flown to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Much relieved, I continued to sit with Dad. He had been drugged back into unconsciousness with tubes down his throat and nose and ivs everywhere. Finally they came and said a tug boat was meeting us (at sea) and taking us to Freeport where an ambulance would take us to a waiting lear jet ambulance.  There happened to be 1 extra seat in the ambulance, so I was able to fly with them and there was even room for our luggage behind my seat.  Also during all this time I was questioned several ltimes as to what happened and I was even called and told that I needed to charge his $4000 medical fees for treatment on board before we could leave the ship (they tried to charge it to his credit card, but he was using a new one with a $1000 limit). I was also allowed to make a couple frantic calls to Ken's answering phone at work. (the first time I called I was pretty hysterical, so they let me call back when I was a little calmer).

Finally they said a Dr. in Ft. Lauderdale accepted him as a patient and we waited for the tug to come. When the tug was there and we hopped from deck 1 to the tug---Dad in a bucket stretcher and totally out. It was about a 1/2 hour ride to Freeport. The jet was suppose to be waiting for us, but it wasn't there and they didn't know where it was. So we sat there waiting for word on the jet. Finally it arrived and we were loaded into an ambulance and transported to the airport. A respitory therapist and male nurse were there as well as 2 pilots. Apparently the delay was finding the 2 pilots and Dr. and nurse all required for medical air emergencies. They took over and were quick and skillful with their work---obviously having done this many times before unfortunately. Of course we still had to clear customs, but I had the passp0rts and filled out the forms on the plane and tug. An ambulance was waiting for us at the airport and soon we were on our way to North Ridge Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale. We got there shortly after midnight---about 9 hours after Dad's accident! While I filled out yet more paperwork, they took dad up to ICU. They also gave me a list of hotels to call--but all were filled up! It was Daytona 500 weekend. The head ICU nurse offered me an empty room in the ICU that night and I took it. But I couldn't sleep with all the beebs going off and wondering if it was from Dad's machine.

 

2-9-04 Nassau:

  Next morning we headed to Tritans restaurant instead of the buffet and had a sit down breakfast.

 Dad stopping on our way to Tritans to flirt with Ariel.

 Waiting for breakfast.

 The Disney ships have 3 regular restaurants and in the evening everyone rotates to different restaurants---rather a neat idea. Your table mates and servers remain the same, but the ambience is different.

 back to admiring the ship decor

 We wandered the decks a bit while we waited for clearance to go ashore.

 Our view of Nassau from the ship deck

 More views of Nassau

 Sign on the Disney ship.

 More of the Disney ship

 Maintenance vacuuming the pool

 Finally going ashore

 Dad wanted to see Atlantis, so we did the ship's Atlantis excursion.  But first, we saw a little of the town.

 Milo Boughton Butler---He was Governor General from 1973 until his death in Nassau in 1979. He is commemorated with a statue located in downtown Nassau across from the Parliament House and his portrait is on the Bahamas $20 note.

 Love the bench made of conch shells

 More of downtown

 Looking across to Atlantis

 More views of the exterior of our ship

 Back to the ship to wait for our excursion

 along one of the walkways

 On our excursion boat to Atlantis

 Nice beach!

 Views of Atlantis from the water

 Our main interest were the eleven exhibit lagoons with over 200 species of beautiful tropical fish including a predator lagoon alive with sharks, barracudas, and stingrays.

 There was even a 100-foot long clear, underwater viewing tunnel passing through the predator lagoon.

 The aquariums were well worth seeing.

  The excursion ended at the casino, but we walked back through the aquariums, then back through town to the ship.

I expected more of a modern city, so was a bit disappointed in Nassau. It was a typical Bahama town--older, rustic, full of beggers. We didn't spend much time in the town itself before we were ready to head back to the ship. (on a later cruise I was back on Nassau and surprised at how much I liked it.  It didn't look at all like I remembered!)

 Our towel buddy that night.

 That evening was our dinner at Animations (after the jacuzzi, of course).

 Dinner was great, our dinner mates were great, the restaurant was great

  the walls and waiter's jackets even changed colors while we were eating.

 A couple of our table mates even got married when they were on Nassau!

 Our servers.

 Another view of the restaurant as we were leaving.

 After dinner we attended the play Hercules. It was a cute play. Then we shopped some of the stores on the ship.
That night (11pm), we went to the pre-view of the new Disney movie, Miracle (about the USA hockey team that took 1st in the Olympics). It was really good.
Another late night and good night for sleeping.