2-8-2005   St. Maarten:

Our first port was St. Maarten. It has the world record for being the smallest island in the world to host two nations---Sint Maarten on the Dutch side and St. Martin on the French side.  It is a 37 sq mile island that features all the charm of the Caribbean.  

We did a ship excursion around the island

 Our tour stopped on at the French capital of Marigot for a couple hours.

 There our excursion also took us on a glass bottom boat trip. I wasn't too impressed with the glass bottom boat part

 heading down the pier to our boat

 the water wasn't all that clear and the only thing we really saw was the few colorless fish by the scuba diver feeding them.

 Now I know where Santa goes after a busy holiday season!

 After our boat ride, we had about an hour to roam around.  There was a shopping mall right there, so we walked through it quickly.

 Back on the bus and back to the Dutch side of the island.

View of Marigot from Fort Louis

 More of Marigot

 We got off the tour bus by the boardwalk in Philipsburg. 

 walking along the boardwalk

 beautiful area

 The beach and water here is beautiful! 

 Lots of interesting looking buildings near the beach, too.

 There is a boat ferry that runs from Philipsburg to the port, but it's only about a mile walk back, so Dad and I elected to walk.  It was an interesting walk.  At one point it looked like we were walking past an old boat graveyard.  Made for some fun photos of rusted metal parts.

Back at the port and the port shops. 

I was rather impressed with this island. There were lots of hills and beautiful beaches.

2-6&7-Sea Days:

  

Our normal breakfast---Lido buffet.  No complaints from me!

 The evening shows were geared towards families---as you would expect.

 They were cute, but there really wasn't the splendor of fancy back drops or costumes.

 The backdrops seemed to be mostly flat and usually just shown onto a curtain.

 We did enjoy many beautiful warm sunsets

 And little cubbies throughout the ship.

There was even a reception for returning passengers. At it we were treated to free drinks and snacks.

 Loved all the cute hallways throughout the ship.

 We found there were many places to go where only adults could be.  It was nice being able to get away from the screaming kids now and then.  Like for the Super Bowl game in the bar.  We also found quiet areas to play cribbage now and then.  And we used the adult pool and jacuzzi quite a bit.

 

2-5-2005 embarkation day:

After a fun week in Orlando, we were ready to head off to our 2nd, and hopefully, much better cruise!  So we drove to Cape Canaveral and dropped the rental car off at a Budget there with a courtesy shuttle to the cruise port.  All went well and it was much cheaper then taking the Disney bus from MCO.

Check in went fine and we were able to board the Disney Magic ship and go straight to our room to drop off our carry on bags.

The ocean view rooms on the Magic were laid out slightly differently then on the Disney Wonder ship which we were on last time.  This time, the bed was away from the window, so my Dad took it (closer to the bathroom).

Being repeat customers, we were also given a gift of a Disney Cruise beach towel.

 Ingenious and comfortable fold down couch.

 Decent sized bathroom with tub/shower combo.

As with all the cruises, if you get there when boarding starts, you're ushered into lunch---even though we were able to drop stuff off in our room first .

The Disney buffets were consistantly good.

After the muster drill, we wandered around the ship acclimating ourselves to what's here.  And gazing out at the vast ocean.

 Lots of lounge chairs

 Nice adult pool.

 Dad posing by one of the 2 stacks.

 the busy family pool

 some of the indoor walkways.

 neat simple designs

 one of the elevator hallways.

 Dad and me at our first dinner.  This was partway through the service--the pictures were changing already.

 Back at our room this little guy greeted us.

 Dad with his new hat.

So far, so good. 

2-11-04 - 2-18-04

Morning finally came and they let me sit in his room. He was still coming off the drugs and looked terrible. He did wake from time to time, but they would come and put him back out (apparently it's uncomfortable being intubated so they liked to keep him out during that time). Disney travel called to see if they could help find me a hotel. They did find a Super 8 and I took it. After waiting an hour for my shuttle each way, I was glad when the hospital's customer relations person looked me up in dad's room and asked if she could assist me in finding a hotel room closer to the hospital. She found a room in the full nearby Hampton Inn for a hospital discount, so I jumped at taking it, but couldn't get in until the next day. Dad continued to come out of the drugs for short spell before they'd put him back to sleep. He took it all in really good stride---as he always did! By evening, he was awake more and trying to spell things in the air with his fingers---air writing. He had no idea where he was or how he got there, so was surprised to hear about the tug boat and lear jet.
That night I went to have dinner in the hospital cafe---the cusomer rep had given me about 8 $5 coupons. The cafe food was actually pretty good. The night in the Super 8 was noisy, but I was so tired it didn't matter. I was glad for the move the next morning, though. The hospital even provided a free taxi for me.
Next morning Dad looked a lot better---more alert. Probably could have come off the intibater, but the respitory Dr. wanted to leave him on it another day. He said with "near drownings" (or as Dad liked to call it "attempted drowning"), there's so much salt left in the lungs that it draws more water into the lungs. That evening, as Dad was air-writing, a new nurse handed me a paper with the alphabet on it. Sure made it easier! I wonder why none of the other nurses offered it!? Or why I didn't think of it!?
Curt (Dad's friend from Atlanta, Georgia), showed up that day. It was really nice having a familiar face around. He even treated me to dinner 2 nights and i treated him to the cafe. He also got a hospital discount room at the Hampton (told them Dad was his brother). He truelly made himself part of my family!
Next morning they took the tube out. Dad's heart then started having periods of rapid heartbeat waves (not A-fib, though). He didn't notice them, but it still worried me. They moved him to CCU and started giving him heart medicine. That night they changed the meds and it went back to normal. When Curt and I went to see him after breakfast, he was gone----off to a regular room. There's where he started referring to the hospital as North Ridge Medical Center and Resort. He was feeling good, but they wanted to keep an eye on him for awhile more. His "roomy" was also feeling pretty good. He had gone in for a physical, then they decided he needed a triply by-pass and wouldn't let him out before the surgery. So between Dad, Curt, and Don (the roomy), they had lots of war stories (all three retirees from the military) and life stories (all the same generation). His wife even ate dinner with Curt and me one night. Those 2 nights the 3 guys and I even played cribbage 'til 10 or so at night. The nurses seemed amused and kept reminding us that it was a hospital and there were sick people there---then they'd shut our door and let us stay. Don was even quite relieved to be able to ask Curt several questions about bi-pass surgery since he had it about 4 month previously.
Finally, on Sat., the Dr. asked if Dad would like to leave on Sun. So I spent several hours on my cell phone working out the arrangements for us to get home. Disney again tried, but could only come up with airfares over $1500. So I called AmericanAirlines directly and was able to pay the $100@ change fees and rebooked us. But the earliest they could book us was for the following Wed.. BEing our original tickets, we had to fly out of Orlando and be booked in the same fare code. I found a car rental and Curt took me to pick it up. Hampton was kicking him out that day, so he made me a deal that if I go to have sushi with him that night, he'd stay another night in a Best Western. How could I resist?! After dinner we went back to the hospital to visit and play more cribbage.

The next morning Dad was finally released. We went straight to the Hampton, where I'd secured another couple nights, and Dad wanted to hit the jacuzzi. We even went to Walmart where Dad picked up another cribbage set for Don and we went back and visited with him another 3 hours that night.
The next day, Dad and I took off to Key Largo and the Everglades. I was a bit disappointed in Key Largo. But we didn't have much time there.  Don't know what I was expecting.  But Dad did get a big kick out of the African Queen boat.

 I was impressed with the Everglades. Lots of birds, fish and alligators. it was a nice day, no mosquitos, and nice wooden trails.

 a cormorant

 gar

 tri-colored heron

 anhinga drying off

 alligator

 Dad looking really good from the nearly life ending experience he'd had just a few days ago!

 wonder what he's taking a picture of

one of my all time favorite photos of dad.

We got back into town in time to visit with Don awhile more--until they brought him a new roommate.
Next morning---we drove off to Orlando. We spent the night in the airport Hyatt so that we could be at the airport by 4:45 the next morning. (I also had to make sure Dad's medical release had made it to the airlines so they wouldn't deny him boarding). We flew to Dallas, Texas, together, then parted ways.