We've Moved

It's been a while since I've posted any travel tales and there are certainly many tales to tell.  I've combined my travel and food blogs at this site:  https://lotusexplorer.com

Tang Dynasty Dancers and Dinner Show

Every visitor to Xian, China will be asked if they would like to attend a Tang Dynasty show.  I highly, highly recommend seeing it.  The performance is lovely.  And the dinner is course after course of dumplings.  All different types of delicious dumplings!

Beijing Opera

On my first trip to China I went to the Beijing Opera.  It was a unique experience unlike anything I had heard before.

Malaysian Food

I was watching House Hunters International on HGTV the other day about a couple from California looking to buy a house in Penang, Malaysia.  It turns out the woman writes a blog I read on Malaysian cooking called Rasa Malaysia (http://rasamalaysia.com).  I found her blog about a year ago.  After returning from a trip to Penang I was looking for recipes for some of the following dishes I tried while I was there:

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Kandar

Prawn Mee

Gingerbread house on the Disney Cruise

While we were on our Disney Cruise over Thanksgiving, we had the opportunity to watch the ship's bakery staff assemble and decorate the Gingerbread House.

Disney Fantasy Cruise - The Rest of the Cruise

Day 6 - Day at Sea

 

What a great way to spend a holiday like Thanksgiving...at sea all day!  We slept in, had a late breakfast, then watched John Charles, Musician/Comedian, perform his family show.  We watched Monsters University in the Buena Vista Theatre and later saw watched Brave in our stateroom.  Before dinner, we hung out at La Piazza.  For dinner, among the choices were Lobster and Turkey.  I had two lobster tails, while The Reader had Turkey.  We both had chocolate lava cake for dessert.  We were stuffed to the gills.  We walked around the ship and ended up in O'Gill's Pub for more football. 

Day 7 - Castaway Cay

Today, we spent the entire day on Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay. As you would expect from Disney, the island was decorated for the holidays. They even had snow making machines by the Christmas Tree on the pier. 

 

 

Day 8 - Port Canaveral - Disembarkation

 

We took advantage of the onboard airline check-in.  The cruise line issued us "special" luggage tags the night before.  We left our checked bags outside our cabin like everyone else but instead of collecting our bags at the port, we collected them at the airport in baggage claim at the end of our return flight at our home airport.  I was a little nervous about this at first but it really works and is a great idea for enhancing your overall vacation experience.    Overall, this cruise was a great way to kick off our holiday season.  

Disney Fantasy Cruise - Day 5 Cozumel, Mexico

 

The weather was sunny but windy.  The boat docked at Punta Langosta pier which is a great location for shopping and restaurants.  We had a leisurely breakfast then headed off the ship for some shopping.  When we exited the pier we were inundated with men trying to get us to come into their stores.  We walked for what seemed like a mile past many stores and each one tried to convince us to enter their establishment, "Come in, take a look, almost free".  After passing a couple stores, I think we saw everything there was available for purchase in Cozumel (jewelry, trinket items made in China, t-shirts 3 for $20, Mexican vanilla, tequila, panchos in your favorite NFL team's colors).  

 

When we arrived at what appeared to be the town square we decided to walk back to the pier on block inland.  The shop workers weren't as persistent and it wasn't quite as windy.  

We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for a beer before returning to the ship.  We only spent about 2 1/2 hours in Cozumel.  If we return to Cozumel in the future, we'll spend the day at the beach or just stay onboard.  

Back onboard we relaxed for a while before going to see Disney's new movie, Frozen.  I love that Disney shows first run movies onboard their ships.

After the movie, we donned our pirate outfits.  Yes, it was Pirate night on the ship!  

Most of the guests dress up as pirates.  Disney leaves bandanas in your stateroom just in case you weren't prepared. 

They have two shows on deck 11, one with Mickey and pals, the other is the Buccaneer Blast complete with Captain Jack Sparrow and fireworks!  And let me tell you some guest's costumes are so good they look like they're part of the show.  No more t-shirts with cute pirate sayings, I need to rethink my next cruise's pirate outfit.