Anguilla. Part 1. Two Tickets to Paradise.
Here we go on our fifteenth anniversary vacation to Anguilla.
Today I woke up at 6am, a full 50 minutes before my alarm. We started getting ready, got the kids up so they could say goodbye. Our taxi came at 730, we loaded up, had our usual crying and goodbyes and then we were off.
The ride to the airport was smooth, the airport was pretty quick, we got coffee at Dunkin and then headed to the gate. Once we got to the gate we noticed it was pretty empty. We boarded the plane third (instead of first), which was tough for Tzvi, but he found the strength to deal with it. We had the bulkhead, row 1 seats A and B. As we watched people board we realized the plane was extremely empty. Then they started making announcements that everyone needed to stay in their assigned seats due to “balance” and “ticket pricing”. Basically they didn’t want people moving to seats they needed to pay for. I don’t think there were more than thirty people on the plane, if that. Needless to say we had an open seat next to us.
The flight was easy, there was a little turbulence. The last time we landed in St Martin was two years ago when we went to St Barths. At that time, the St Martin airport was under construction and we had to go through a pretty third-world outdoor baggage claim and immigration process. They’ve finished the airport and I have to say it’s actually pretty nice. Passport control and baggage was a breeze and we quickly headed outside where there was a man with a sign for our hotel. He took our bags and then drove us about one minute to the ferry port. I think we could’ve walked there, but who wanted to in that heat.
The ferry port (and I use the term “port” loosely) was basically an outdoor waiting area with a snack bar and signs all over the place about stopping the spread of Covid-19. Finally they took us through a little building where we had our passports checked again (this time for exiting St Martin) and then boarded the Funtime Three speedboat. There were only a few other passengers – a couple who looked to be in their thirties, an older Indian couple with their adult son, and a young girl traveling alone. We set off on the ride and were given complementary drinks. I had a Diet Coke, which I spent the next twenty-five minutes trying not to spill as the boat bounced us around the ocean. I don’t even know how to describe the ride. Have you ever rode The Beast ride in NYC? That’s probably the closest thing to this.
We arrived at the Anguilla port – the Blowing Point Ferry Terminal (insert innuendo here) – and went through our third passport control of the day. We were met by a driver from our hotel and were ushered into a black SUV. We made the fifteen minute drive through Anguilla, which I have to say looks like pretty much every other Caribbean island. Dirt roads, unfinished houses, lots of goats wandering the streets. Anguilla is a tiny island. You can drive from one end to the other in about forty minutes, and that’s primarily because you can’t really drive more than 30 miles an hour. According to our driver, there are only 13,000 people on the whole island.
Finally we arrived at our hotel – the Cap Juluca, a Belmond hotel. This was our first time staying at a Belmond, and you know it was tough for us to venture out of the comfort of our usual Four Seasons or Rosewood vacations. However, Belmond is owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH, so we figured a sister brand to Louis Vuitton probably isn’t that bad. Could we sound more spoiled? Actually, the truth is that our wonderful travel agent Mary Helen suggested this hotel, and as usual, she was spot on.
We walked into the open air lobby and were greeted by Roxanne who sat us down in big comfortable chairs facing the ocean and brought us a delicious passion fruit rum drink. From check in we were driven in a golf cart to our suite by Evan who is our “villa host”. He’s not quite a butler, but more like a personal concierge – he gave me his number and said to text him anytime with requests, reservations, etc.
Before going any further let me describe the layout of this resort. The resort is set on Maunday’s Bay, which is on the northern side of the island, and basically spans the entire length of the bay. At the western edge of the bay is the “main house” that has the lobby, the pool, Uchu (one of the restaurants) and the bar, as well as a separate building that houses the other two restaurants, Cips by Cipriani and Pimm’s. At the eastern end of the bay is the spa, as well as the Cap Shack, another restaurant, which is kind of like a beach shack and bar where you don’t need to wear shoes. Between the two ends are all of the villas – 24 white Moroccan style buildings, each with around six rooms/suites of varying sizes. All of the rooms face the ocean, and there’s a single street that runs from end to end. You can either get around by bike, walking or having them drive you around on a golf cart.
For this trip we booked a junior suite. We’re in 1705, which is in Villa 17 – “Aquamarine” (every villa has a name, most are colors although a few are randomly named after places in Morocco). The villa is fitting because aquamarine is my favorite color, although it would’ve been fun to be in cerulean. Our suite is on the second floor, and has a patio plus a second rooftop patio with a beautiful view of the whole bay. The room is beautiful and the bed faces the ocean. The bathroom has a tub designed to fit two people – it’s not just a tub that’s big enough for two people, it actually has two separate spots where two people can lay facing each other. My one complaint is of course that the shower has no door. I don’t understand it. Who isn’t cold without a shower door?
We spent about five minutes unpacking but it was 4:15 and we were hungry and wanted to get some beach time in, so we exited our villa and took the short path to the beach. We found our seats and settled in. There is only one row of seats along the beach (so there is never anyone sitting in front of you), and every room gets a designated spot right in front of their villa, so you never need to worry about getting good seats. They assign you seats on the first day and those are your seats for the whole stay.
Unfortunately we were told that there was no more food service for the day. We had barely eaten all day, aside from our morning bagel and some plane snacks. We were told to walk down to the Cap Shack, except when we got there the kitchen was also closed. We sat on the beach hungry, then came back to the room and sat on the terrace and ate Chex Mix.
We got ready for dinner, FaceTimed the kids, and called for a golf cart. The golf cart never showed so we walked to the lobby which wasn’t so bad, and then got our scheduled taxi. One thing to commend the hotel on – Tzvi had emailed them in advance and asked them to make dinner reservations for all five nights. For the two nights we were going off property, they automatically scheduled taxis to pick us, which was a nice touch.
Tonight we are eating off property at Blanchards, apparently an Aguillan staple. When we were reading about Anguilla, pretty much every blog, review, article, etc. said to eat at Blanchards, so we did. We got a great table facing the beach. Of course it was the typical Caribbean restaurant where there are no walls, so we were basically in the sand, but there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean.
They gave us menus that had been printed especially for us and had Happy Anniversary Harry and Stephanie written across the top. We started off with drinks, a rum punch for me and some banana cream shake situation for Tzvi. We ordered the fried plantain chips and a zucchini bread. The zucchini bread ended up having cheese baked into it, so that was a fail. They should really write that on the menu. We then had a warm shaved Brussels sprout Caesar salad which was actually very good, and then I had salmon with bok choy and cous cous and Tzvi had breaded grouper. For dessert we shared an apricot croissant bread pudding and something coconuty that was basically a chocolate shell with coconut shavings and then a scoop of coconut ice cream filled with baileys Irish cream. Neither of us really love coconut, but it was their most famous dessert so felt we should try it. It was pretty good.
We got a taxi back to the hotel, then a golf cart back to the room, and ended the day.
Everything was going so well.
Winter Break. Part III - Days 13 and 14: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
Monday morning was Animal Kingdom Day.
The plan was for Tzvi to stay in the room to work all day, while the girls and I went to Animal Kingdom, but first we started with a breakfast at Boma, the restaurant in our hotel. It’s a buffet (not a character breakfast), but honestly much better than Chef Mickey’s. They had all of the usual Disney breakfast staples (Mickey Waffles), plus African-inspired dishes (Tzvi ate chakalaka which was both delicious and fun to say). Every so often drummers would come through the restaurant, which was fun. There was also a peach crisp situation that was really good. Strong start to the day.
After breakfast, we headed back to the room, regrouped, and then the girls and I went over to Animal Kingdom, which was incredibly convenient since we were staying so close. We decided not to get the Premiere Pass today. It’s just not worth it at this park, and we were able to book Lightning Lanes in advance pretty easily and still get done everything we wanted to do.
First stop: the safari. It was a great safari. We saw elephants, zebras, rhinos, and had amazing views of the lions. I think because it wasn’t so warm the animals don’t sleep all day, so it was cool to see them awake and moving. Overall, A+ safari. From there, we went to Festival of the Lion King, which was cute. Then we went to Expedition Everest, which Hallie did twice, then Dinosaur, which is basically the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland but dinosaur-themed. It’s actually very dark, and I think it’s super scary. But we all did it, including Madeleine who was great. I think I was more afraid than anyone else. This ride is actually closing February 1st because they're redoing Dinoland (as they should) and turning it into the village from Encanto. So glad, or maybe not so glad, that we got it in before it closes.
After that, we had pizza for lunch, and then we went to the Zootopia show, which is like a 10 minute movie, which was great because we all love Zootopia. We did pass by Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, and would have loved to meet them, but the line was like over an hour long. Just was not worth it. Then we went to Pandora and rode the Avatar ride. Madeleine almost did it, but the ride mechanism is where you're sitting on, I don't know how to explain it, like a banshee and you're leaning forward and there's restraints in back of you and in front of you, and Madeleine got into the restraints, but then we were sitting waiting for the ride to start for several minutes, and I think that just got her creeped out, and then she didn't want to ride. So she got off the ride with Shir. Hallie and I rode it and did a rider switch, so Hallie got to ride it twice. Then we all rode the Navi River Journey ride, which is a slow moving river ride with the super expensive, crazy animatronic at the end which I always find so strange. It’s the weirdest ride. Nothing happens and then there’s this giant blue person and then it just ends.
That was it for our Animal Kingdom Day. We got everything we wanted to done. Overall, a good day.
At some point while we were in Animal Kingdom I received a call from Tzvi.
“There’s a bird in our room.”
I’ll let him explain.
[Tzvi: I spent the entire day sitting at the desk in our hotel room, and I wanted some fresh air, so I opened the patio door and left it open for a while. I guess at some point I went to the bathroom and left the door open. Then I came back to the desk, and the next thing I knew I looked over and there was a bird flying around. I tried to shoo it out, but it went the opposite way of the open door and instead went into the bathroom. I called the front desk and they said they would send pest control “immediately,” but I still spent the next thirty minutes waving my arms around keeping the bird contained to the toilet area and not letting it land on our stuff, because it basically pooped everywhere it landed. Eventually pest control showed up and managed to catch the thing in his hands, leaving a mess of feathers all over the bathroom floor. Don’t worry, the bird was fine and he released it off the balcony. Then a housekeeping supervisor came with a housekeeper and they changed all of the sheets (it did poop on Shir’s bed) and sanitized all of the bottles that had been on the bathroom counter. It was traumatic. After that I went to the quick service place and got myself a nice lunch, some kind of African vegetable stew with rice and salad that was actually delicious.]
We headed back to the hotel, put our stuff down, the girls showered, and then it was time to head to Disney Springs. Before leaving we saw two zebras that looked like they were about to get it on. That was fun.
You may remember from the first leg of our trip – or maybe not because it feels like this trip began sometime in the Clinton administration – that there were two things we didn’t do at Disney Springs first time around: eat at Rainforest Café, and get a caramel apple at Goofy’s Candy Co. [Tzvi: I am fairly positive that Steph engineered this whole snowstorm just so she could get a Disney Springs do-over.]
Finally it was time for Hallie’s long awaited meal at the Rainforest Cafe. She was so happy that we were able to get there. The dinner was fine, actually better than expected. The chef did come out to discuss allergies, but unlike previous trips we didn't have to wait a long time for him to come. Like previous trips, we did have to wait a long time for our food, but it wasn’t too bad. Nice dinner. After dinner we went to Goofy's Candy Co. and I got my caramel apple, which was very exciting. Then we walked around World of Disney and did our second final shopping. Tzvi just kept saying that we had already done our big Disney shopping the previous week so we shouldn’t be buying anything. That was funny. Then we headed back to the hotel in a Lyft with a driver who had been a marine. Semper fi.
We put the girls to bed and then I decided to make a quick trip. Last year we had done an afternoon tea at The Cake Bake Shop on the Boardwalk and I really wanted to get back there. So, at 10:15pm on Monday I took an Uber to The Boardwalk Hotel and walked down the Boardwalk to The Cake Bake Shop. It was so cold, but I wasn’t giving up. I scanned the menu and decided on a latte and a piece of Millionaire Cake for the small price of $23. These cakes are over the top. I took my bounty back in an Uber and Tzvi and I shared the cake and coffee. The cake was so good. Worth the exorbitant price. I wish it would have been warm enough to get an iced coffee, but I’m very glad I made it there at least once this trip.
Tuesday
Tuesday, we got up and Tzvi and I went to the quick service place to get some food, even though no one was really hungry. Although Hallie had a bagel. Present that girl with a bagel or a slice of pizza and she will eat it, no matter what.
We were out of our room by 915, and at 920 loaded into our van. We had booked a different company for the airport transfer and got a nice comfy (air-conditioned) van. The airport check in was uneventful. All things considered, the airport was actually fairly empty. Everything went very smoothly, we got some Starbucks, got some food, boarded on time and even pushed back on time. Tzvi and Hallie had the bulkhead and we were right behind them. It was all uneventful. The most eventful thing that happened was that when they closed the plane door a man ten rows back yelled out very loudly, “STOP! My aunt is not on this plane!” As if scripted, the bathroom door opened right after he said that and an older lady stepped out and just looked at the man. Then he said sorry. The flight attendant just looked at Tzvi and said, “happens once a day.”
The flying time was under two hours, which is insane. Of course, it took a while to get our bags, because that's JFK. Stepping out to meet our driver it was shockingly cold. Like so horrible to come back to this. But I'm glad we missed the storm. I'm glad we were able to get home Tuesday. I’m glad we were able to get in all four Disney parks. I'm glad that everything worked out for us, and I just am still in shock that this winter break was almost basically two weeks long, and we hit all four Disney parks, Disney Springs twice, and a seven day cruise.
That was just nuts.
Winter Break. Part III - Day 12: How Is There a Part III?
Sunday morning we were up bright and early, since it was disembarkation day and they want you off the ship very early.
By 8:15 we already saw crew members knocking on doors to move people along. I think we were out of our room by around 8:15–8:20 and headed to the buffet, which was still packed—so it wasn’t like everyone had already left the ship.
By 9:00 though, everything was basically shut down. I tried to grab a water bottle from the bar and they wouldn’t even give me one. Then we headed down to disembark, and still—no water bottles. Not ideal.
We got off the ship, said our goodbyes, and headed to the luggage area, where we found our bags pretty quickly since there wasn’t much left by then. We had a very nice porter who walked with us, and then we got to customs. The customs officer asked, “what fruit are we bringing in today?” That was kind of accusatory. We said no, and then he asked if we bought any medications in Mexico. I said no, but Hallie piped up and asked, “What about the Silvadene we got at the medical center?” Thank you, Hallie, for keeping us honest. I explained that it didn’t really count, and we were waved through. Then the porter told us that was a “low-key strange” interaction that he hadn’t seen before.
Next challenge: our driver. We tried calling him and quickly realized he only spoke Spanish. Thankfully the porter spoke a little Spanish, so we handed him the phone. It still took a while to locate the driver because no one could quite understand where he was. I understand it’s Florida, but it feels a little crazy to send a driver who speaks zero English to pick up cruise passengers. Eventually we spotted our ride, and it turned out to be basically one of those access-a-ride minibuses, the kind that fits wheelchairs and has about ten seats. Plenty of room for us, but no air conditioning. And did I mention that after last week’s cold spell Florida turned to a heat wave and it was around 80 degrees outside? To make things worse, it seemed the driver couldn’t get his minibus over 60 mph (the Florida highway speed limit is 70), so our hour ride turned into an hour twenty-five minutes. Even coach buses were passing us. And just when we thought we were almost there and this ride was over, the driver almost pulled into Disney’s Animal Kingdom. At the last second Tzvi started yelling “left, left!”—which, of course, he didn’t understand—but somehow from the frantic gesturing he figured it out and turned. Thank God.
We finally arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is a beautiful hotel. It really reminded me of the Grand Californian in Los Angeles—very brown, very woodsy, very Lion King-esque. We checked in, and surprisingly our rooms were already ready even though it was only around 11:15. Our rooms were technically on the ground floor (which is actually the third floor), which initially didn’t thrill me—but then we realized we had been given a savanna view. I definitely did not pay for that, but we looked outside and could see animals, which was very cool. We also realized that Tzvi and I were given an accessible room, so the bed was lower and the shower had a seat and a curtain for wheelchair access. But we booked this only two days ago, and I guess beggars can’t be choosers.
We dropped our stuff and headed straight out for our EPCOT day. We took a Minnie Van because we wanted to get there as quickly as possible and knew it would drop us closer than a regular Lyft. We had a lovely driver who used to be a safari guide at Animal Kingdom.
We arrived at EPCOT around noon and immediately headed to The Land pavilion since everyone was starving. The plan was to do The Land and Soarin’, but The Land was down, so we went straight to Soarin’. We bought the Premier Pass for the day because we knew our time was limited and wanted to get as much done as possible—but even with Lightning Lane, Soarin’ still took about 35 minutes. We soon realized four major rides were down at the same time. That meant everyone with Premier Passes or Lightning Lanes were funneling into the same few rides, and since EPCOT doesn’t have that many rides to begin with, every open ride had long Lightning Lane waits. Even Figment had a long wait!
Also, I should mention the park was incredibly crowded. It may have been because people were stuck in Orlando due to the snowstorm, but we also noticed that we were hearing more non-English languages than English. Last weekend was a U.S. holiday and the parks were full of Americans—this weekend felt like the opposite.
We did Guardians of the Galaxy, then Mission: Space, which we never do—but it had no line. We chose the less intense version, and honestly, it was really nice and I’d do it again. Thankfully Test Track reopened, so we did that too. It’s been redone and is better than the previous version, but still not as good as the original.
Spaceship Earth was still closed, so we headed to the countries and started with Ratatouille. Two notable things: it’s no longer 3D (which didn’t really matter), and they now cram six people into each ride vehicle—which is not great. We watched a tiny French cast member trying to politely instruct much larger adults to squeeze into these little cars. They looked extremely uncomfortable. We had a pre-dinner snack in France: the five of us shared an entire baguette, Tzvi had a cheese plate, and we had a few pastries.
With about an hour before dinner we walked around the countries a bit and then I took the kids back to try Spaceship Earth again—and thankfully it was open. We missed it last year and really wanted to do it this time.
During that time, Tzvi and Shir walked around on their own (separately), and then we all met back up for dinner in Mexico, inside the pyramid—our favorite. It was delicious as always. I basically had tortillas, beans, veggies, and guacamole, which never disappoints. We skipped dessert there and instead opted to get caramel treats at the Werther’s stand in Germany (a milk chocolate caramel and a dark chocolate caramel, both excellent).
Before leaving Mexico we did the Mexico ride, which has been refurbished but looks exactly the same, then hustled over to Frozen and managed to ride just in time to grab a spot for fireworks. As previously documented in this blog, I find these fireworks to be subpar and nowhere near as good as the old one. But still nice. After the show, we headed out of the park. It was a long but great day—my feet really felt it, and I ended up with blisters between my toes.
When we got back to our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge, there were four giraffes just casually hanging out outside our window. Nice end to the day.
Winter Break. Part II - Days 10 and 11: All The Stores Have Mezzuzahs.
Friday morning we woke up in sunny Costa Maya, Mexico.
We hadn’t planned anything for this port once again—first because it was a short stop, and second because there really wasn’t anything we were interested in doing. So we slept in, had breakfast, and then got off the ship leisurely. We ate breakfast at the back of the buffet near the Kosher food. I think after English, Hebrew is the language I hear most on this ship.
When we got off the ship, it was very hot. We walked around the port, which was exactly as gross as we remembered. It was hot, crowded, and full of shops selling absolute junk—lots of the usual Israeli-owned skincare places (all of which had mezzuzahs) trying to lure people in. As we made our way toward the end of the port, Hallie finally spotted a hair-braiding place and decided she wanted to get her hair done. Madeleine did not want to do this at all and was miserable in the heat, so Tzvi ended up taking Madeleine back to the ship while I stayed behind with Hallie. Originally, Hallie wanted braids, but the girl before her got a wrap, and that immediately changed her mind—so she got a wrap instead.
Meanwhile, Shir walked around the port and ran into actual friends. Like people she went to high school with and now are working in the port shops. She said her friends told her they know all of the skincare places are scams, and that if they realize people are Israeli or Jewish, they don’t even bother trying to sell to them.
Back on the ship, Tzvi took Madeleine to the Surfside neighborhood, the kids area at the back of the ship. There’s a great splash zone with smaller waterslides and a couple of smaller pools. Madeleine loved it and just kept riding the same slides over and over. She had a great time.
All aboard was at 1:30, and we were back on the ship by around 1:15. The rest of the afternoon was pretty relaxed. We got veggie burgers at the buffet and then hung out by the pool for a while—although Hallie couldn’t go in because she wasn’t supposed to get her burn in pool water.
Around 3pm we handed the kids off to Shir. First we stopped at the Lime and Coconut, which is a bar that just has a bunch of slushy cocktail machines, including a mango rum slushy that Tzvi has been drinking a lot of. Then we went to the adults only infinity pool at the back of the ship, which is a pretty cool space.
Then we went back to get ready for Shabbos. At this point, we felt like it was pretty certain that we weren’t flying home on Sunday. I wanted to book a hotel before all the flights got cancelled so that we wouldn’t be sold out of anything (and everything would’ve been non-refundable at this point, so if we decided to book something it meant we were staying). [Tzvi: That is only partly true. She wanted to book the hotel so she could start booking her Disney tickets and lightning lanes before they sold out.] Tzvi was apprehensive about the whole thing, but by the afternoon he finally agreed that we weren’t flying Sunday and that it made sense to book a hotel. Just before Shabbos I called Disney World and made a reservation for two nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which was the cheapest Deluxe resort available. We also looked at the moderate hotels, but Tzvi wanted something a little nicer since he’d be spending all day Monday in the room working.
Dinner was in the main dining room, where we once again had steak. At some point during dinner Shabbos started.
After dinner, we walked around a bit and then went to see the aqua show, Torque, in the Aqua Theater. On previous ships we’ve been on, the Aqua Theater was outdoors at the back of the ship, which always felt risky because the show is so dependent on weather. On this ship, they finally moved it indoors, which was a very smart decision. It still gets canceled sometimes due to ship movement (they actually canceled one earlier in the cruise), but at least weather isn’t an issue anymore. The show itself was excellent—probably the best aqua show we’ve seen. At one point they actually had to stop the show because a guy who was doing donuts on a motorcycle inside a spherical cage fell, but overall it was incredibly well done.
We put the kids to bed and then walked around a bit. I went to guest services told them about the noise that I hear every morning, the banging and dragging sounds on the balcony above me. They said they would report it to the housekeeping supervisor.
And that was pretty much our Friday.
Day 11 – Saturday: Sea Day
We slept in pretty late Saturday morning—woke up around 8:40, lingered in bed for a bit—and then, around 9:15, we got a knock on the door. It was one of the housekeeping supervisors, come to apologize for the noise issues we’d had. He explained that the family in the connecting rooms above us had six kids and that they’d received multiple complaints throughout the week. Apparently, the family had been spoken to several times, but there wasn’t much more the ship could realistically do. He was genuinely apologetic, and as compensation, they offered us a future cruise credit worth 20% of what we paid for this sailing. It has to be used within a year—which is always tricky—but it was still a nice gesture, especially given that the situation wasn’t really fixable.
After that, we got dressed and headed to the buffet for breakfast. Then we spent some time out in the sun. Shir went off to do her own thing, and I took the girls to Surfside because there was supposed to be a meet and greet with Sailor (the ship dog). Unfortunately, no luck—Sailor wasn’t feeling well. Hallie had already met Sailor earlier in the trip, but Madeleine hadn’t, and she was very disappointed. We hope she’s feeling better soon.
From there, we walked over to the AquaDome for the 11:15 Salute to Veterans program. I really like taking the kids to these kinds of events—it feels important—and this one was especially well done. It included a memorial for fallen soldiers, acknowledgments of every branch of the armed forces (including the Space Force, of which there was actually someone who stood up), readings and poems, Taps, the Star-Spangled Banner, and a medley of songs representing each division. They also recognized service members from other countries. The fountains were choreographed to red, white, and blue lighting, there was a massive flag, and they were even handing out themed cocktails. It was moving, thoughtful, and surprisingly engaging for the kids, who sat through the entire thing.
Afterward, we went back to the pool area and met up with Tzvi who had been sitting in the sun increasing his likelihood of getting skin cancer. We spent some time in the hot tubs and the small pool, and then around 2:00pm, we headed back to Surfside so Madeleine could play in the kids’ splash area, which she loves. She had a great time—until she got sprayed in the eye with a jet of water (mostly Tzvi’s fault) and decided she was done. She recovered quickly, though, and ultimately survived yet another cruise mishap.
We grabbed something to eat, then left the kids with Shir for a bit while we went to the adults-only hot tub. That’s where we ended up next to the group of Argentinian boys and an Israeli couple. The Israeli guy had a prosthetic leg and had served in Golani; we later found out he lost the leg in Gaza shortly after October 7th. They were talking to each other in Hebrew and we were just listening (though they didn’t seem to notice we understood what they were saying). When the Israeli got out of the hot tub he casually removed his leg and used it pour water over his head. You don’t see that every day.
Eventually, we headed back to the room to pack and get ready for dinner. As usual, the 5:00 PM dining time felt absurdly early, and no one was particularly hungry, but dinner was pleasant enough. We had one quick course and then got out of there. Afterward, we finished packing and waited for Shabbat to end.
Well, what do you know. When Tzvi turned on his phone he had a text message from JetBlue. “JetBlue Flight #0284 has been cancelled.” It was nice to be right about this whole thing, and also to not be scrambling around to find flights and hotels. Also, had we waited to figure things out, we would’ve been behind the rest of the non-Shabbos keeping world, since that text message had come in at 3 in the afternoon.
We did our final walk around the ship—bought our photos, had a second dinner at the buffet (to be fair, Tzvi didn’t really eat the first dining room dinner), and played a few final arcade games. We put the kids to bed and then got cocktails at the Jazz bar in Central Park and sat listening to the music and looking at what cruises we could use our cruise credit on.
We ended the night sitting outside on our balcony, watching the Florida coastline go by. There were cruise ships everywhere—way more than I usually notice on the last night—which felt like a nice way to wrap things up. A good final day.
Winter Break. Part II - Day 9: The Cruise Ship Curling Iron Catastrophe.
Today we woke up and were immediately confused.
I looked at the clock and saw that it was around 7:40-ish and thought, that can’t be right. At some point, Tzvi’s alarm went off, and then room service arrived… except room service was scheduled for some time between 8:30 and 9:00. That’s when it finally dawned on me that there was a time difference between Honduras time and ship time—something nobody bothered to tell us. Normally on a cruise, they make announcements the night before or give you some kind of warning. This time? Nothing. So I was totally confused and called Guest Services just to confirm what was going on. They told me that if we had booked a shore excursion through the cruise line, they would have notified us—but otherwise, we were on our own.
That’s when I realized I had booked our taxi for 10:00 a.m. island time, which would have been 11:00 a.m. ship time. Thankfully, I was able to call and move it and we were off the ship by 10:00 a.m. ship time—9:00 a.m. island time. We walked through the port, and our driver and his helper were WhatsApping me, so I was eventually able to locate them. But getting out of that port was a disaster. It’s insane. It’s disgusting. There are basically two narrow lanes, traffic everywhere, and it’s completely disorganized. We finally found the guy we were meeting, but then he told us he had notified the driver we were there—and it still took forever for the car to actually get into the port. I truly don’t understand why they don’t plan better, since they know exactly how crowded it’s going to be.
We ended up having to walk along this awful road. I don’t even know how to describe it—we were walking through mud, broken sidewalks, stray dogs everywhere. It was disgusting. Eventually, we reached the car, which, thankfully, was very nice, and took about a half-hour drive around the island to the Kimpton Grand Roatan in West Bay. We had booked a day pass through ResortPass at this hotel since it looked nice and there were no shore excursions we wanted to do. Last time we came to Roatan we did a shore excursion and were taken to a gross beach that we couldn’t get away from fast enough. We had contemplated just staying on the ship, but then we found this hotel and it looked nice, so we figured we’d give it a shot.
We checked in, got settled, and they set us up with seats by the pool. We spent the entire day there. The hotel is actually beautiful, the pool is really nice, and the beach is nice although very small (just a few feet of shoreline). I don’t know if this is somewhere we would ever go for a dedicated vacation, but definitely a nice place to spend a day. Hallie made a friend from the ship and spent a lot of time hanging out with her in the hot tub. The sun came out, we went to the beach for a bit, ordered chips and guacamole, and just relaxed. It was honestly a really nice day and a great way to spend time in Honduras. Highly recommend doing it this way.
Sitting in the pool in the sun, I finally felt relaxed for the first time on this trip. It was very nice, but it begs the question of why it took me so long. Maybe it was a combination of the poor weather the first few days and Tzvi’s sickness. I should mention that by this time everyone we knew were trying to change their Sunday flights. We looked on JetBlue and the flights we had booked for Tuesday were now almost sold out, and the last remaining tickets were selling for three times what we paid for them. You’re welcome, Tzvi.
We took the car back to the port, got straight back on the ship, grabbed some drinks, hung out at the hot tub for a bit, and then went back to the room to get ready for dinner.
And then… the excitement.
I was curling my hair when Hallie came in and asked me to blow-dry hers. I started blow-drying it, and I don’t know exactly what happened—someone moved, the curling iron fell off the counter, and by pure instinct, Hallie grabbed it. Unfortunately, she grabbed the hot end. Immediately, she burned the palm of her hand and started screaming. It was awful.
Off we went to the medical center. She was in so much pain—biting down on a towel so she wouldn’t scream—and it was really, really bad. We had to wait a bit, but the staff clearly understood how much pain she was in. She was seen by nurses and a doctor, and they treated her hand with Silvadene, aloe, and wrapped it up. Hallie did great, and everyone there was incredibly kind. And because she had to go through all of this, she got a bonus: she got to meet Sailor. Sailor is the ship dog we’ve been looking for the entire cruise. On the new Icon-class ships, they have a resident dog, and Sailor is ours. She happened to be in the medical center, and Hallie was thrilled to meet her, which made the whole ordeal a little better.
All of this delayed our dinner, which was scheduled at Giovanni’s Table, the specialty Italian restaurant. We ended up starting dinner about an hour late, but thankfully they had no issue holding our reservation. Dinner was pretty good. It started with these amazing buttered rolls, then we had salad, pizza, pasta, and salmon—everything was very tasty. For dessert, we ordered fried chocolate ravioli that were supposed to come with Nutella. Dessert took over 20 minutes to arrive, and I’m fairly certain it didn’t come with Nutella. I think they made fresh ravioli with chocolate sauce instead because they were worried about the allergy, even though we told them Nutella was fine. They were very nice and accommodating, but still—not what we wanted. And it took forever.
Because of the delay, we had to rush out to make it to the ice show, which started just minutes later. We hurried over and managed to get seats together, so it all worked out. The ice show was themed around the sun—focusing on different regions of the United States and how sunlight plays into them. For each region they played different music and brought out different staging. It started with Miami and Latin music, moved into Texas with cowboy hats and Beyonce, and ended in LA. It was actually a great show. The ice skaters were fantastic and some even did ‘extreme’ skating with flips. All Russian, obviously.
After the show we put the kids to bed and then walked around a bit. We sat for a while at the jazz club in Central Park, where we had probably the best cocktails of the trip.
Good day.
Winter Break. Part II - Days 6, 7 and 8: Perfect Day? Not Quite.
Last night—Sunday night—was a literal nightmare.
We went to bed close to midnight, and all night there was banging and constant noise. You could hear movement nonstop. Then, in the middle of the night, Tzvi’s stomach issues returned. So he was up and down the entire night. After him being sick the week before, I honestly can’t describe how upsetting this was. I don’t know if it was food poisoning or just that his stomach wasn’t great and then got aggravated, but it was so bad. So, so bad. I was livid.
Eventually, the sun came up—and somehow things always feel a little better once it’s light out. The girls, Shir and I got up, got dressed, and headed to the buffet. Tzvi slowly made his way after us and managed to eat some toast.
This was our first buffet breakfast of the trip, and I noticed they have an entire kosher section. There were hash browns, potatoes, baked beans, and different kinds of eggs. At the omelet station, you can ask for a kosher omelet, and they use separate pans and serve it on a paper plate. There’s also a separate area with paper plates, and the breads—bagels and rolls—are clearly labeled kosher. Honestly, it’s great. Especially considering we didn’t pay for the fresh kosher meal package, it’s a really nice option and surprisingly accommodating.
Today was supposed to be our “Perfect Day at CocoCay,” Royal Caribbean’s private island. Except it was cloudy and about 65 degrees, which is… not exactly “perfect” beach weather. Still, we decided we had to get off the ship, so we packed up, got off, took a tram to the beach, and basically sat on a cloudy beach for a couple of hours. For lunch we got veggie burgers, which were actually not bad.
The island itself is very lovely—obviously not as nice as Disney’s private island, but still really nice. It was just cold. Hallie actually ran into one of her friends who was on a different Royal Caribbean ship that was also docked there, which was cute. Eventually, though, we all agreed it was freezing and we were done. So we took the tram back to the ship, and that was our “perfect day” at CocoCay.
Once back on the ship we went to the pool, realized how cold it was, and immediately headed to the hot tubs. The girls ended up swimming a little, but overall it was just cold.
For dinner, we went to a specialty restaurant—Chops Grille, the steakhouse. We don’t usually go there because we always think, why bother? It’s expensive because you’re paying for steak, which we’re not getting. But we knew we couldn’t do too many meals in the dining room, so we decided to try it. When we walked in, they sat us at this massive table meant for about ten people, which felt very strange for just five of us. But honestly, it worked out great—we had tons of room and a lot of food.
Dinner was excellent. We had salads, salmon and branzino, and everything was really delicious. For dessert, we had key lime pie and a warm chocolate cake. It was all very well done, and we had a really nice time there. Tzvi managed to eat what he wanted, which was a win.
After dinner we walked around a bit, went to the Taylor Swift name-that-tune, and hung out in the Surfside neighborhood where the kids climbed on the climbing wall and rode the carousel. They put on a really cute ‘bedtime stories’ show for the kids. Hallie watched, but Madeleine just wanted to climb.
It was a good day overall.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning, we woke up to a sea day. It was another rough night for Tzvi, which meant it was a rough night for me. We slowly made our way to breakfast, which was the usual buffet. After that, I went to the gym—for my one and only workout of the vacation.
Tzvi took the girls to Surfside. They climbed on the wall, rode the carousel again and played air hockey in the arcade. Then we met back up and all hung out by the pool. There’s this green dry slide that takes you from Deck 16 to Deck 15, and Madeleine became completely obsessed with it. She had a really great time going on that over and over, like twenty times.
For lunch I went to the buffet and Tzvi got the Mexican food from the Mexican buffet next to the pool. He figured if his stomach was already messed up, why hold back. I think we basically stayed by the pool all day until it was time to get ready for our, you know, early-bird dinner. Tonight was fancy night, so we dressed up. People on the ship definitely do not dress up as much as they used to, which I don’t love. I think it’s because the masses started cruising and just don’t appreciate the art of fine dressing on a ship.
Anyway, tonight we had actually pre-ordered kosher, and we all had steak for dinner. It was actually delicious and nice to get some meat.
After dinner, we saw Back to the Future the Musical, which is an adaptation of the Broadway musical. The girls loved it, and I thought it was really well done. I did keep thinking, though—what would possess someone to turn this into a musical in the first place? But still, it worked. The guy who played Marty’s dad, George McFly, was fantastic. I thought he was the best one in the cast.
After the show, we went to the café and got some little cakes just for fun, and that was it for the day. Shir met a group of six Argentinian yeshiva boys who all speak Hebrew. It’s amazing how she just keeps meeting all of these people.
Wednesday
By Wednesday morning we officially started worrying about the upcoming snowstorm back home. All we were seeing all over our Instagram feeds were people talking about how all of the elements were colliding to produce a historic storm that would surely close all airports on Sunday and Monday. I said, “You know what? We should just book flights now and not wait to see what happens on Sunday.” We figured if things were bad Sunday, Monday would probably be bad also, so we booked flights for 11:50am on Tuesday. Tzvi was a little apprehensive about it, but he went along with it. I told him, worst-case scenario, one of the tickets will be refunded, but we’ll make it home. [Tzvi: I’m not saying any of this was unreasonable, but let’s be clear – this was all part of Steph’s grand scheme to add another Disney leg to this already very long vacation.]
We didn’t book any excursions for today because Cozumel is always… gross. But I’d been in touch with my friend Renee—she was on a Princess ship—and we tried to figure out a way to meet. Someone on our ship had recommended a beach club called Paradise Beach Club, so we decided to try our luck.
Now, here’s the thing about Cozumel: if you tell anyone in the port that you’re going to Paradise Beach, they immediately say, “Oh, it’s so crowded, don’t go there, it’s sold out—come to this other beach instead.” But everyone giving you that advice is probably getting kickbacks from other beaches, so you just ignore them.
This was actually the first time we’ve gone somewhere in a foreign port that wasn’t a ship-booked shore excursion. We just got on a taxi line and went. The ride was about 11 minutes, and we arrived at the beach club. It was actually pretty great – mostly clean, good service, not gross, and decent food. We were seated near Renee, and we had a really nice time. The beach club had a pool and a beach, and it was just a very pleasant way to spend the day. For lunch we ordered nachos (Tzvi was really testing that stomach, but he figured you’re not in Mexico every day). The kids had pizzas, because what else would they eat.
We eventually headed back to the ship, hit the hot tubs for a bit and Hallie and I did one of the water slides.
Tonight, we did a dinner without the kids at the Lincoln Park Supper Club. This is the ship’s specialty, fancy, most “special” dining experience. They even sent us an invitation to our room earlier in the day. Basically, it’s a six-course meal accompanied by a jazz quartet that plays you through the entire meal. Each course came with a separate cocktail pairing, which was nice, but they were like full sized cocktails and who can drink six cocktails in a meal? We had informed them of our dietary restrictions ahead of time, and they handled everything beautifully.
The food was delicious—fine dining, really well done. There was a lot of smoke produced from liquid nitrogen, which was cool. Also, it was a small space with a limited number of tables and they only do two seatings each night. The music was nice, though I could have done without it being loud the entire 2.5 hours. But that could also have been because our table was literally right next to the musicians. The space itself was very cool, the service was fantastic, and overall it was an excellent experience. The only issue was that mid way through the meal the boat started really rocking. After dinner Tzvi asked one of the musicians if it was hard to perform when the ship was rocking so much and he said “well this is the rockiest it’s been since I’ve come on board!”. Lucky us.
After dinner, we went back to the room. The kids were still up of course. We didn’t see a show but were so stuffed and tired we were ready for bed. Good day.
Winter Break. Part II - Day 5: She Doesn't Look Any Bigger Than the Mauretania.
Sunday morning we woke up mostly packed, so we just had to throw in the last few things.
We headed to breakfast at the quick-service spot to try to use up whatever was left of our dining plan meals. The dining plan is very interesting—they really give you a lot of food. I think financially it was worth it this time around because the kids were free, but truly, it’s an absurd amount of food.
After breakfast, we did our final shopping. I still had some dining plan snacks left, so I bought chocolate coins, lollipops, and a few other snacks. Our ride was scheduled for 11:00 a.m., and this time it took over an hour to get to Port Canaveral. I don’t remember it taking that long last year when we went on the Disney cruise—I feel like it was only about 45 minutes. Maybe I’m misremembering. Who knows.
Eventually, we pulled up to the port and saw the ship—and wow. It is huge. I know it’s not technically that much bigger than the Oasis-class ships we’ve been on, but it just looks massive. The check-in process was excellent. We didn’t get to the port until around 12:20, and maybe if you arrive earlier—like right at 11:00, when people with early check-in times are lining up—it’s more crowded. But when we arrived, we flew through security and check-in and were on the ship incredibly quickly. I was really impressed.
When you board, you don’t walk into some narrow hallway—you enter right onto the promenade, and it’s such a nice welcome. Upon entering you’re met by a massive “pearl” that spans two decks and has 3,000 moving tiles. It’s pretty cool.
We did our muster station drill, checked in with our assigned person, and then went to our room. We only had to wait about four minutes for it to be ready, and then our luggage showed up shortly after. Again, super impressed with how fast everything happened. The rooms are really nice, and the connecting setup is different than usual. Instead of just a door between the two rooms, there’s an outer door in the hallway, and both of our rooms open inside that space. So we can leave our individual room doors open and just keep the outer door closed, which is great. The rooms are nice and pretty spacious, especially the bathroom which has the biggest shower I’ve ever seen on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and even has a seat.
We went to the buffet for a quick lunch. It’s a huge buffet, but there was plenty of seating and nothing felt too crowded. After that, we checked in at the kids’ club—which the kids will probably never go to—and then walked around the ship a bit. We went back to the room, unpacked, and changed for dinner. We did some more exploring, but it was cold outside, so some of the outdoor areas were closed.
We had a 5:00 p.m. dinner time, and earlier I had told someone there was absolutely no way we were making it at five. I think we got there around 5:15ish. Our table is in a pretty decent spot. Our waiter, Roderick from the Philippines, mentioned that they had tried to seat everyone who requested kosher near each other, and we were very grateful to be on a different floor. Interestingly though we seem to have been put in an Asian section of the dining room. In our little corner there are six tables, and we are the only non-Asian family. Not sure what that’s about. Dinner was actually pretty good—well, good for dining room food, I’d say. I got the Indian vegetarian option. Tzvi and Hallie both got the halibut, although Hallie didn’t love it. Madeleine had grilled cheese and really enjoyed it. Dessert was some kind of cake that was just okay.
After dinner, we walked around a bit more and then headed to the theater for the 7:30 show. While we waited there was a trivia thing you did from your phone and I came in 8th. We were welcomed by the cruise director, whose name I forgot, but he’s Australian. The show featured a juggling comedian. It was… fine. Hallie absolutely loved it and laughed the entire time. It was very cute, especially for kids. He did some impressive juggling tricks, but it wasn’t the most amazing show I’ve ever seen. Still, it was entertaining. After the show, we walked around a little more, but Hallie was exhausted, so we came back to the room around 9:45. There was still stuff going on—a welcome party at 10:15 and a balloon drop at 11:00—but we weren’t going to make it to any of that.
Shir walked around a bit and met a guy who was Mormon and had apparently never heard of Jews, so she explained that to him. We’ll see if they ever meet again.
Now we’re back in the room. The ship is rocking, which I don’t love. Madeleine doesn’t want to go to sleep because she has been worried since we visited our muster station that the ship is going to sink. Also, I definitely hear movement on top of our room. And that’s pretty much it.
Good night.
Winter Break. Part I - Days 3 and 4: Happily Ever After.
Friday morning, we got up with the intention of heading out bright and early… which did not happen.
I think we left the room around 9:20. From there, we headed over to Magic Kingdom. One of the best parts of staying at Bay Lake Tower is that it’s not even a seven-minute walk to the park. It’s amazing. There’s a dedicated security line just for Bay Lake Tower guests, which makes getting into the park so much faster. We are technically on the monorail line and could take the monorail from the Contemporary, but that would take close to half an hour. The walk is a fantastic alternative.
As soon as we got into the park, we immediately noticed that all the Christmas decorations were still up. I’d noticed it the day before too, but it was much more glaring here. There’s a huge Christmas tree right as you enter Magic Kingdom, and they’re still playing Christmas music. I find this absolutely ridiculous. It’s mid-January. It’s time to let it go. It doesn’t always have to be a holiday celebration. (I later found out through Instagram that the decorations were still up because they were filming a Hallmark movie for next Christmas.)
Anyway, we made our way down Main Street, which was extremely crowded. I think it was Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and there was also a cheer competition going on, so the park was completely packed. Thank God we had the Premier Pass.
We started in Fantasyland and basically banged out all the rides there—Teacups, It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. From there, we headed over to Haunted Mansion. We stopped for lunch at Columbia Harbor House then did a bunch more rides – Little Mermaid, Dumbo. Me, Hallie and Shir went on Tron while Tzvi took Madeleine on the carousel.
We all met up at Pirates where we tried the new Beak and Barrel (Pirates of the Caribbean-themed) bar. We got a bunch of alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails, and none of them were very good. We also had some chips and dip that were fine. The space is very cool and I could see it being a really nice pitstop on a hot day, but not somewhere I need to run back to. After the bar we rode Pirates. For years Madeleine has refused to go on the ride because she's too scared. So it was a big deal that she went on it today, and she was very proud of herself. We told her we would buy her a present for it, and she has been thinking long and hard about what she wants. She hasn’t stopped talking about what she’s going to use her present for.
After that it wasn’t freezing so we did Jungle Cruise. Before we got on the ride a cast member named Andrew started talking to us. He said he lived in NY for a few years. Ends up he went to NYU Gallatin. He was shocked we also went to NYU and said he never meets alumni. Anyway, he basically said his Gallatin degree was useless and he just took his LSAT and is planning on going to law school. Nice to meet you Andrew. After the ride we got a Dole Whip, and then Hallie, Shir and I did Space Mountain.
Then it was time for dinner at Cinderella’s Castle, which is a character dining with Cinderella, Merida, Aurora, Rapunzel and Ariel. It’s very cute and the food was actually pretty good. We only really did this because we had the dining plan - I think if you pay cash this is super expensive, but we figured why not with the dining plan. It was a very nice experience - the restaurant itself is very cool, and at the end of the meal we all got plastic swords and princess wands. The girls wanted the swords, so Tzvi ended up with a princess wand.
After dinner we walked around and it wasn’t so cold so we stayed and watched the fireworks, then did the walk back to the Contemporary. Back in the hotel we made kiddush and then went to bed. Good day.
Day 4 – Saturday
Saturday morning we got up late. We basically lounged around and had breakfast at the hotel at Chef Mickey’s, which is a character buffet. The food is really not great – there’s just nothing remarkable – but it’s a classic experience sitting in the middle of the Contemporary lobby with the monorails going by right above your head. I don’t have much else to say about it. At the next table was a mother with two older daughters, and they had a photo of what appeared to be the deceased husband/father. They kept saying it was his birthday, and they were there celebrating. It was extremely depressing.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the hotel. In the afternoon it warmed up enough that we were actually able to go swimming, which was nice. It was the warmest day of our trip so far and a really nice way to spend the afternoon. After that, we got the kids pizza, then showered, changed, packed up, and got ready to head out after Shabbos.
When Shabbos ended we headed to Disney Springs. We decided to take a Minnie Van—it’s basically a Lyft that’s run by Disney and the drivers are actually Disney cast members. It’s actually a suburban (not an actual van), and about twice the price of a regular Lyft, but Hallie had been asking all trip so we decided to give in once. It is a nice, big, clean, comfortable car. The kids love that there are TVs on the back of the seat with Disney cartoons. Also, Minnie Vans can go anywhere Disney busses can go, so you can usually get closer than a Lyft.
We got to Disney Springs and went straight to dinner at Summer House, a California-inspired restaurant that, ironically, has no locations in California. Hallie was disappointed that we weren’t going to Rainforest Café, which we usually do, but this time she had to deal, because Tzvi wasn’t willing to sit through a Rainforest dinner (see our last Disney blog for the reason why). The food was really delicious. We had fantastic Brussels sprouts, Tzvi and I got salads, Shir got pasta, and we all shared a pizza. It’s a very nice, very good restaurant, although service took a long time. Still, I’d definitely go back—especially if the weather were nice, because it would be beautiful to sit outside.
After dinner, we walked from Summer House over to where the Disney stores are, and it was so packed you could barely move. It was insane. I truly cannot believe how crowded it was. We didn’t do any regular shopping and just headed straight to the Disney side to hit our usual stores.
This time, I opted not to get a make-your-own caramel apple, something I do on every Disney Springs visit. It was argued (not by me) that it wasn’t worth getting since I didn’t want to eat it all right then and we couldn’t bring it on the cruise the next day—and unfortunately, that person was right. [Tzvi: was it unfortunate that you didn’t get the apple, or unfortunate that I was right?] Both.
We did our World of Disney shopping, where Madeleine cashed in her Pirates prize and got a new Dumbo stuffy. I’m pretty sure it’s her eighth Dumbo.
We ended the night at Ghirardelli with a chocolate brownie sundae, which we had been waiting forever for because our buzzer never buzzed. When we finally checked, it turned out they never actually attached the buzzer to our order, so it had just been sitting there for a while. Why does this keep happening to us?
After that, we took a cab back to the hotel and went to bed. Good day.