DAY THREE — Our first day at sea and there is so much to do! We can go to a lecture about Malta where we will be tomorrow, play Bingo or go to a cooking demonstration, learn napkin folding or Origami.
Disney gets it. They’ve just announced the creation of a special website where you can share your Disney memories and view those of other vacationers (maybe you’ll laugh, maybe you’ll pick up a park-going tip).
We are just off the leeward coast of Oahu, a world away from bustling Waikiki near the Ko Olina Resort & Marina and the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa (http://www.ihilani.com/) where we are staying. Here, we’re snorkeling with marine biologist Tori Cullins and her crew at Wilde Side Specialty Tours (www.sailhawaii.com) at a spot where sea turtles return again and again to have fish clean them of sand and algae
We swam with wild spinner dolphins—two pods, maybe 30 of them racing around our boat; there are very few places in the world to do that, I learn. The Hawaiian spinner dolphins feed at night, we learn, and return to this area close to Hawaii’s western coast to play and rest.
This is Disney’s first foray into Hawaii and is designed so that families vacation here in a new way, promises Djuan Rivers, Vice President of the new resort as he leads me on a hard hat tour.
Kauai is Adventure-Central and my daughters, young cousin and oldest friend—a girls’ trip!-are sure seeing that this morning. “It is the place to come for outdoor activities,” declares Maui Native Eric Dee.
“We just want to relax,” my adventure-loving crew says. So that’s what we do, and there couldn’t be a better place to do it—with or without kids—than this Hyatt Resort with its network of pools–one with a water slide we all love and one just for adults, a gentle salt water lagoon for the youngest vacationers.
Parents wouldn’t think of driving anywhere without securely strapping their baby in an appropriate safety seat and spend countless hours considering which safety seat to buy. But on airplanes, it’s a different story. I just don’t get it.
Hanalei and beyond makes me think this is what Hawaii used to be like—one-lane bridges, narrow winding roads, shaved ice stands selling flavors like Li Hing Mui (sweet Asian plum) and Guava, small shops with colorful Hawaiian shirts hanging outside.
Not bad for a morning on vacation. Other adventures include the chance to paddle along the Na Pali Coast along 2,000 foot sea cliffs, through sea caves, bike down Waimea Canyon, paddle the Wailua River or a kayak trip along with a zip line adventure.
It turns out that of all the endangered species of plants in the United States, two thirds are from Hawaii, and this research effort is designed to help these plants once again flourish
I’m traveling with my two daughters, Reggie and Melanie, my 15-year-old cousin Eva Weinberg, and my best friend, JoAnne Cagen. It is our last gasp of summer before the girls scatter back across the country to jobs in San Francisco, school in Colorado and Connecticut. The trip is especially poignant for JoAnne.
In just one day at sea, you could go from a sommelier selection tasting at 12:30 to a martini tasting at 2:30 and the mixology seminar at three. At four there’s a tequila seminar and at 10:30 a cognac tasting, followed by adult versions of onboard entertainment — comedians, magicians, musicians.
As we near the end of our 11 day voyage, I’m more convinced more than ever that there can’t be an easier way to introduce children to new cultures and new places. There’s no packing and unpacking every day, no navigating unfamiliar cities with bored kids, no trying to find them something they’ll eat on a menu in a foreign language.
The Disney Magic is at Ajaccio Corsica on Napoleon Bonaparte’s Birthday- August 15. So there will be fireworks, music and plenty of celebrating.
Where else can you hold a hissing cockroach, hang on to a “shooting star” (actually a 4.5 billion year old meteorite), use real bones to solve a mystery CSI-style or, as I did, see what you’d look like as an early human
We’re at a restored picture-perfect farmhouse up in the hills of Lucca on the vineyard and olive groves that are owned by Piero Tartagini and Francesca Pardini, taking a cooking lesson from Zeela Rubenstein and her husband Mauro Gehigani
The 120 cooks, 48 stewards and 10 storekeepers on board the Disney Magic aim to make sure you’re not. How much weight you’ll gain is another story.
Everyone is watching. We’re in the ancient Coliseum in Rome but these gladiators won’t fight to the death, thank goodness. They’re not slaves or prisoners of war.
It’s only a half mile but a steep 40 per cent grade makes it seem much longer. After all the eating aboard the Disney Magic (www.disneycruise.com) as we cruise the Med, we’re glad for the exercise as we head to one of the most famous volcano craters in the world. Mt. Vesuvius.
DAY SEVEN – Disney for adults. It’s all how you shake the cocktail. Who says Disney Cruises are just for kids?
Everyone visiting NewYork for the first time needs a friend like Coreen Bourke. The lifetime New Yorker and retired phone company administrator was our designated Big Apple Greeter (www.bigapplegreeter.org), volunteering her time to show visitors like us the New York neighborhoods she knows so well. It’s a free service underwritten by generous donors.
DAY SIX It’s all about the swish of your hips. We’re at Douar Laroussi about an hour from where the Disney Magic is anchored this morning in Tunis, Tunisia in North Africa.
DAY FIVE – We’re in Malta, so where are the Knights? The city of Valetta, Malta’s capitol, was built by the Knights of St. John who came here in 1530 to protect the pilgrims.
Imagine if you could only get into your office or house via toeholds carved into rock. Imagine cooking by tossing a hot rock into a waterproofed basket filled with stew fixings and grinding corn with a rock. Imagine living with your family in small stone rooms. Imagine no TV or video games to entertain the kids — just stories passed down from generation to generation
DAY FOUR – Little kids are everywhere–splashing in Mickey’s Ears in the Mickey Mouse head-shaped pool, getting chicken fingers and Pizza poolside, lining up to meet princesses.
(DAY TWO) — Teen attack! It is 10:30 p.m. Saturday night and The Stack at the top of the ship is packed with 100 teens and their three energetic counselors the kids are from all over the world though the majority are Americans.
My mission: To see if the Disney Cruise Line can do as good a job for teens as they do for younger kids. Can they make cities like Florence and Rome interesting to kids who prefer malls to museums?
It is 10:30 p.m. on the first night of a Mediterranean cruise and The teen club, appropriately named “The Stack” on deck 10 of the Disney Magic is packed with 100 teens and their three energetic counselors.
Nantucket — the only place in America that has the same name for the island, the county and the town — does have a well-deserved reputation for being preppy. “It is the only place you can wear pink pants and get away with it,”says one local.