Trying to be creative: Fantasy and WDW in March

I am managing to get this out today. Late as it is.

This is a story about two Joanne's.

Me and my bestest buddy Joanne. Yes we have the same name but also we share the same initials and birth month! Just over two years ago we went on our first Florida trip with our families and had such a wonderful time that we decided two years later we would do it again.

Here is a picture of us from March 2011 in the magic kingdom

This year we left once again for sunny Florida but this time we went on a cruise aboard the Disney Cruise ship Fantasy. One full week of being pampered and catered to. It was a first for us all. So excited too. We headed down to Spokane where we caught a flight to Denver then onto Orlando. We spend the night there near the airport and then we headed to the ship.

This is at the hotel just before we left in our shuttle to the ship. The group is a little different than the first time we went south. Starting from the left is Brian, Joanne, Gwen (Joanne's mom) and Jim are in the back row. Then in the front are Arianna, Elizabeth, Alex and me holding our granddaughter Payton. Two years you can see the difference in the kids.We look at those pictures now and see how much they have grown.

Moments after we boarded the Fantasy. Here are Arianna, Jim and Payton.

Joanne and her family sit right across from us. Yes we are amazed by the grand entryway.

We had four ports that the ship stopped at

1) Grand Cayman

Jim and I went to George Town,Grand Cayman on our own. The two girls stayed in the kids club. Here is Jim with one of the many pirate statues.

2) Costa Maya Mexico

One of my bucket list items was to visit a Mayan ruin. As you can tell I am very happy to be here. This excursion was to Chochoben ruin. Our tour guide Phillipe was the best! He even serenaded us.

3) Cozumel Mexico

This excursion was a dune buggy tour of the island.

The first thing we got to do was snorkeling. Payton and I stayed on shored and admired the fish there. But the rest of the group went out. Here is Arianna. She did very well and kept up with the guide Alan.

Here are Jim, Arianna and Payton with our dune buggy. We were at the tequila tour. It was very interesting and good samples too.

At the end of the tour, then sampling tequila, we carefully chose the tequila we wanted to take with us. . The Joannes and Gwen are with one of the owners of the place.

We hopped back into our dune buggy and headed toward the west side of the island. Alan took us to the place where all the kids got a chance to hold a pet iguana.

Then we crossed two highways (which are not what we are used to here in Canada) to get to this beautiful beach. It was deserted and we had such fun. Arianna, Elizabeth and Gwen enjoy the waves. After leaving the beach we headed to the southern tip of the island to a park where we got to see salt water crocodiles, needle nose fish, some more Mayan ruins and then to see a light house.

The girls found quite a few hammocks. They took the time to relax and play on them. Elizabeth really got the hang of it.

This ended our tour and so we had pictures taken with our guide Alan. He was great and a really funny. The ladies were given permission to call him Sweetie :-)

4) Castaway Cay Disney's private island in the Bahamas