Tag: Florida

Swimming with the Manatees. And in my own urine.

About an hour and a half from Orlando is Crystal River; a town that is home to Kings Bay – a spring fed river system that has also been designated a National Wildlife Refuge specifically to protect the manatees that seek its warmer waters in the winter. Florida has over 900 springs and they generally stay at a constant 72 degrees year-round. The manatees get too cold in the Gulf of Mexico when the waters there go below 68 degrees and they come further inland to survive the winter temperatures. They do this over much of Florida, but Crystal River hosts the most West Indian Manatees in the world.

Capitalizing on this migration of the manatees to places further inland, there are a variety of dive shops that will hire out a boat for a fairly reasonable rate (around 50 bucks per person) and the captain will take you to an area in the bay where the manatees congregate. Our captain supplied us with snorkeling gear, wet suits, and hot chocolate for after the swim. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was just us and one other boat in the area.  My 8-year-old daughter and I shimmied into our wetsuits and stepped down the ladder off the boat into the water. Those of you who have been in a wetsuit before would know that the suit keeps you warm by trapping a layer of water between it and your skin, and it’s your own body temperature that heats up the water inside the suit in order to keep you warm. I had not been in a wetsuit before and did not know this, but as I entered the water, I suddenly understood why there was hot chocolate offered at the end of the swim. 72-degree water is pretty chilly.

Once accustomed to the water, my daughter and I got our snorkels on and headed over to the rope line that marks the area where only manatees may enter. There were more manatees than I could count on the protected side of the rope line. Occasionally a manatee would leave the protected area and swim right underneath us, and in the clear water, the view was outstanding. One particularly big manatee went past us on its way to the nearby Three Sisters Spring, and we were so close we could see the algae flow on its back as it swam. On others we could see the propeller scars from accidents with boats that were going too fast for the poor lumbering creatures to dodge. By “we” could see, I mean really that “I” could see.  The 8-year-old was not much into putting her face into the water.  Probably a good thing to note BEFORE you pay for a snorkeling experience.

We followed one manatee to Three Sisters, which was surrounded by rock outcroppings and we swam around to look at the fish swimming all around. It was at this point that I became completely and utterly distracted by the need to pee. That kind of unrelenting, all-consuming urge to pee that prevents you from noticing you’re swimming above a manatee in a purely clear, white-sand bottomed spring. My daughter was and remains disgusted with me, but I peed right there in spring.  I took care of the situation the only way I could, really, and quickly came to the realization that when you pee in a wetsuit, your pee stays IN the wetsuit. So now I was swimming around trapped in my own urine. Warmer, yes, but is pee-induced warmth really that gratifying? I say no.

We made our way back to the boat, swimming through the narrow inlet that lead back and forth from Three Sisters and watching as manatees occasionally passed under us to head back and forth as well. Sadly, when we got back to our boat, we discovered that many more boats had arrived while we were by the spring, and an entire human chain was hovering around the rope line waiting for manatees to leave. Things like this, as well as people harassing the manatees, trying to touch and hitch a ride on them, and the general increase of human activity around the manatee’s safe zone are all issues that have created the controversy that surround the swim-with-a-manatee business.

Based on this information, which I did not know before I went myself, I would not go again, nor recommend it to others. But I can definitely advise you to find a bathroom before getting into a wet suit.

The Real Disney Dream – Dropping off your Kids

My mom, my two daughters and I went on our first Disney cruise this last June – the first time on a cruise ever for me and my girls – and I have many favorite things about my experience on the Disney Dream.  I will have several entries about my cruise here at some point, but for now, let me tell you about one of those favorite things: Kid’s clubs!

I love my children.  Which includes my youngest daughter.   But let me tell you that one of the highlights about my recent Disney cruise was the fact that I got some time without her.  That sounds awful, and is the kind of sentence that, if she reads it now, would make her sad. So I won’t show this to her.  But her future self is totally going to get it.

When we first boarded the ship, we did what most newbies did, and toured it.  One of the first things we checked out was the kid’s clubs. Here’s the thing; the Disney cruise line has excellent kid’s clubs.  One of them, Edge, is just for ages 11-14 and my social little girl took to it immediately.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, we did plenty of family stuff; meals together, Castaway Cay, shows, hanging out on the deck, the Aquaduck, and the pool, but it was also very nice to be able to hang out in the kid-free zone of the ship and just relax as only adults without little kids present can.  Quietly.

In preparation for our cruise experience, I had YouTubed the Disney Dream and knew that there was a kids club for ages 3-12 called the Oceaneer’s Lab that looked ultra-themed and really cool and it was where I figured my 11-year-old would like to hang out when she wanted to do kid’s stuff.  It has directed activities such as building race cars, making cookies, a science station, and a detective mystery to solve.  There are also movies, navigation simulators, video games, an animation studio, a craft studio, and all kinds of kids to play with.  There’s security, too, kids cannot check themselves in or out on their own and there are several cast members manning the ingress and egress gates of the club.  Everyone has to register to be able to go to the club, and all the information pops up on a screen for the cast member to see – your stateroom number, allergies, and any other pertinent information.  Right next door is the Oceaneer’s Club.  Also designed for ages 3-12, this area has several specifically themed play rooms; Andy’s room, Pixie Hollow, and a Millennium Falcon room.  There’s a magical interactive play floor, and more directed activities here as well; A Jedi training experience, story time, and Playtime with Mickey – where Mickey and pals will play games and puzzles with the kids.

The hours of these clubs?  9 am to m-i-d-n-i-g-h-t.  This means you have free babysitting – where the kids will have a ball – at almost any time of day, during the entire length of your cruise.  The great thing is the Disney cruise can be as family-friendly as you want it to be; if you want someplace for your child to play for an hour, for the length of a quiet dinner, at night while you go to the silent disco, or while you tour Nassau, you can be (almost) assured that your child will have fun.  I say “almost” because I did witness a pretty sad sight one day as I was passing by the Oceaneer’s Club; a small boy, no more than five, who had been crying up in the area by the gates where the cast members monitor who is being signed in and out.  I happened by during what must have been a shift change and one cast member was explaining to the other that the child had been there since 9am (it was 3 when I passed by), and had been upset for the whole time, and his parents had not come for him.  My heart broke for the little guy.  While I certainly did enjoy my child-free moments on the cruise, this was just a very long time to leave a sad little boy and not come back for him.

There is, by the way, It’s a Small World Nursery, for kids ages 6 months to 3 years.  This service is one that you need to reserve ahead of time and does charge for its services, but a very nominal fee.

There are clubs for the older kids, as well – Edge (ages 11-14), and Vibe (ages 14 – 17), on different areas of the ship from where the younger kid’s clubs are. And while the Oceaneer Club and the Oceaneer Lab were so cool, Edge is where my daughter was drawn to.  It’s a bit lighter on the theming, one might say “more mature” if one was eleven, but just like the younger kid’s clubs, Edge has both organized and independent activities to choose from.  My daughter participated in a dance competition, trivia, and learned how to draw a Disney character.  There was always a movie playing, plus video games, foosball, dodgeball, and other activities such as a pirate challenge and improv.  My daughter’s favorite thing?  Meeting and hanging out with other kids.  For this club, unlike the clubs for the younger kids, parents do not sign kids in and out. The kids can come and go as they please.  This meant that if a kid got hungry, they simply walked down one flight of stairs and went to the buffet, or the ice-cream machine or the drink station, or – who are we kidding, the ice-cream machine.  This lack of signing in and out is also what made me wary of this service at first.

You see, I am a bone fide worst-case-scenario worrier.  I don’t have a stomach ache; its most definitely a tumor.  My kids aren’t just out of my sight for a minute; they’re definitely kidnapped.  So for me to let my 11-year-old go back and forth to Edge on her own is a testament to how secure I felt once I got familiar with how things worked on the ship.  A fantastic feature, and the one that put me most at ease, was the set of Wave phones that are located in the stateroom.  I have a cell phone, but my daughter doesn’t.  And you don’t get great cell service on board anyway.  But the Wave phones are a courtesy service that is designed to help parties communicate on the ship despite spotty cell service.  At first, I just saw it as expensive tech on our desk in the stateroom and told my kid to leave it alone.  But she insisted with a confidence in technology that only those under age 25 have, and we gave the phones a try.  It was great!  I could contact her from anywhere on board.  She could phone me when she got to the club and phone me when she was hungry and going down for food (ice-cream).  I could phone her when it was time to meet up again for dinner or a show.  Or just to see her and tell her I love her (in case she reads this before adulthood).

The option of a kid’s club made our cruise so relaxing.  My youngest daughter’s love of Edge allowed my mom and I some time to just hang out together on the forward deck or to go to the spa – and it also allowed for my older daughter to have some time with just her and her grandma.  So, while the Disney Dream is a wonderful family experience, the kids club help you to customize what that experience looks like and gives everyone a little of what they want!