Monday, December 13
This was a day at sea as well. One of the first things we did when we got up and left the cabin was buy me some Dramamine. It was already after 11 a.m. when we did that. The Dramamine was great. Conclusion: Dope up, don't miss out on what Palo has to offer. The Dramamine worked well even on a day later in the cruise when we had some rough seas.

In the afternoon, we attended a presentation designed to get everyone off of the ship to shop at the ports.

That evening, there was a great production of "Hercules the Muse-ical" at the Walt Disney Theatre, at the front of the ship.

Tuesday, December 14
We docked at St. Maarten, the island that is half Dutch and half French. There's an Austin Powers joke in there somewhere. A bus took us to the French side, where we had the French Riviera Beach Rendezvous. The beach was beautiful, and I happily plunged into the waves and didn't buy anything from the vendors approaching everyone. Disney warns guests ahead of time that there may be more skin shown on this beach than folks from the U.S. are used to seeing on beaches. There wasn't much to see, really. Besides, there was no question that I was with the most beautiful woman on that beach, and she stayed modest.

We did some shopping on the Dutch side of the island, in Philipsburg. We couldn't resist spending a bundle in the Belgian Chocolate factory shop. Yum. This time, the calories were mostly for other people.

If my memory is correct, this was where it started pouring rain while we were on our way back to the ship. We walked. Someone in a car stopped to offer a ride, but we were already soaked and the rain wasn't cold, so we declined. Besides - I am a very cautious person. I work with someone whose travel group lost someone in Europe years ago. They never found out what happened to that guy.

The ship was still in port and the sun was down when everything in the cabin went dark. The TV was off, the lights were off; everything was quiet. In a few moments, we heard the voice of the captain as he addressed everyone and told us that we were all going to die. Just kidding. He said there had been a power failure and that they would work on getting the situation back to normal ASAP.

Kori and I turned to each other and fretted.

"It's dark."

"There's no electricity."

"We're stuck in our cabin."

"We can't watch TV."

"We can't read!"

"It's our honeymoon."

"What ever are we going to do?!?"

As you can imagine, we were not inconvenienced in the slightest by the power failure.

That night, the ship had a "Pirates IN the Caribbean Party", complete with fireworks. The crew claimed that this was the first or one of the first trips to have the fireworks, because they had just received permission to use them. The theme was part of dinner that night, too. Everyone had bandanas.

Wednesday, December 15
Walt Disney died 38 years ago this day. Kind of strange to think we were on a ship sailing under his name, in the Caribbean. I wonder if he ever thought his company would be in the cruise business? I think it is a natural fit for a company with Resorts in Florida, California, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and France.

Because we had been running around outside of the U.S., and because we were going to St. Thomas, which is in the U.S. territory of the Virgin Islands, we had to get up early to go through customs.

Kori and I enjoyed the Atlantis Submarine excursion at St. Thomas. I think I would have been a little more apprehensive (claustrophobic?) if I hadn't been on the Disneyland Submarine Voyage a bunch of times in my life.

Thursday, December 16
This was another day at sea.

Voice talent and stage actor (Lumiere) David DeVries had a presentation and participation session in the Buena Vista Theatre.

I think this is the day I had some time in the cabin to myself while my wife attended a creative napkin folding presentation.

The show that night in the Walt Disney Theatre was "Disney Dreams".

Friday, December 17
Disney's island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay, awaited us. I wonder what other uses Disney has for this island? There's gotta be some reason they have that place besides being able to register the ships there and to have a place to bring the guests. I'm thinking maybe "Lost: The Theme Park!" or perhaps Eisner was planning on exiling Ovitz there.

I had signed us up for parasailing. Since I'm acrophobic (not in planes or buildings, Tower of Terror, or California Screamin', but in the open air), my family had assumed that this was Kori's idea. However, I had planned out the entire honeymoon, and it was my idea. I know my wife likes those kinds of thrills, and I figured I was going to be fine with it. I always loved the beach.

The first sign of trouble was literally a sign. There's a lovely warning sign about sharks. Great.

For some reason, I figured our parasailing was going to be right there in one of the lagoons or bays. But when we boarded the boat of the contractor (not Disney staff), it sped us away out to the open ocean until the Disney Magic was but a tiny thing in the distance. That's when I discovered I don't like being out in the open ocean on a small boat, at least not with the thought of sharks and being at the end of a rope, far from the small boat, very far from our cruise ship.

Yes, I wimped out. It wasn't going to be worth the stress I'd be putting myself through just to fight a fear, especially when I was unlikely to be faced with this situation again. My wife did enjoy her time in the sky, though, and I noticed that she wasn't struck by lightning or eaten by sharks. Whew!

Back on the beach, I swam a little with the mask and snorkel Disney lets you use for a fee.

That night, there was a farewell variety show at the Walt Disney Theatre with juggler Mark Nizer, magician Rich Purpura, and the Walt Disney Theatre performers. Wow, did time really go by that fast?

Saturday, December 18
The ship arrived back at Port Canaveral, and the bus took us back to Orlando International Airport.

We had enjoyed our honeymoon at Walt Disney World and on the Disney Magic very much, and were sad to leave it all behind.

Our flight left at 2 p.m., and after nine and a half hours of traveling, we were back in Long Beach at 8:40 p.m.

My friend Lynn picked us up and drove us home.

Since Kori and I lived separately right up until our wedding, we had left our place in disarray with a lot of my stuff being there but not in place. It was going to be a mess.

The first thing we noticed was the wreath on our front door.

When we entered the condo, we found that the place had been completely cleaned and organized. The backyard, once overgrown with weeds, was cleared. The carpets had been cleaned. We had two new bookcases. Our full china cabinet had been moved.

It was something to behold. It wasn't the work of little critters, like in a classic Disney animated feature. It was the handiwork of Kori's family, led by her sister Kendra. Kori's parents and future brother-in-law had helped.

We were home, back in Anaheim, back to where we could drive to the Disneyland Resort on a whim. And now that I've finally completed this column, I can say that it's nice to be back on LaughingPlace.com.

Thanks for reading. If you've ever honeymooned at Walt Disney World or on the Disney Cruise, I'd love to hear about it.

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