National Harbor Pirate Cruise

I am always looking for local activities to review on here. I like to try out fun things families can do when they cruise out of Baltimore or Norfolk! This weekend we took my nephew on a pirate cruise for his 4th birthday. We bought our tickets on living social but even the price on the Boomerang Tours website is a great value. The hour long tour met along the boat dock of the National Harbor. Our tour started at 1:30 so we stopped at the pizza shop and walked around a bit watching the ducks swimming in the Potomac River.

Once the Boomerang Pirate Ship approached, we were checked off the list and given doubloons as our entrance tickets. Once everyone was loaded the treasure hunt began! They introduced the crew, and went over pirate terms with the kids. The premise of the "treasure hunt" is that an ex crew member took the keys to the treasure chest and you must go after him to get them back!  The boat ride was nice and breezy on such a hot summer Sunday!

Included in the cost of the tour was pirate tattoos and face painting! Also available for purchase was a pirate bag for $10.00. This included a treasure map, pirate hat, eye patch, sword and a sticker along with the reusable drawstring bag. My nephew enjoyed being able to dress the part!! Before the kids could finish their tattoos, the evil scurvy dog pirate was spotted and all the kids hopped on the water cannons to try to sink his boat!!! The kids loved the excitement of the chase as the evil pirate drove his boat around ours. He left but returned and when he did we were able to get the keys to the treasure chest back. YAYYYY! With that, the treasure was shared among the kids.

On the way back to the dock, the kids enjoyed a dance party and the limbo which was a fun way to wrap up the cruise. The adults enjoyed the gorgeous views of DC and Arlington. Once back to the harbor, we stopped for ice cream and headed home. The afternoon was awesome and I highly recommend Boomerang Tours. We took a sunset cruise with Boomerang for my birthday in June but they also have bus tours to local wineries and other boat tours. Check out their site for all their options.

**NOTE** We drove into DC and parked in a parking garage across from the harbor for $12/ day. They have posted rates that differ but this is what we were charged both times we used them. There are plenty of garages and some street parking as well as the option to take the metro. Anyway you get there, you will be sure to have a great time.

Aurora or Cinderella?

EEK! I signed up for my first half marathon. I first heard about the Disney races at the end of February and thought it was a great idea to get healthier. In March, I signed up for a gym membership and began training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon at Disney World! Over the last couple of months I have amazed myself at what I can do! Since then, I have completed 2 5Ks (3.1 miles) and a 4 miler with a 10K (6.2 miles) in queue for September.

While I continue to train, I am getting into the planning mode of this mini vaca! I believe we will drive down for a couple of days but need to pick a hotel. This will be the tricky part as I am not sure if we will stay at a Disney Resort. While convenient, they are also more expensive but driving to the Park on race day may be more of a hassle than it is worth. Stay tuned for updates there!

The 13.1 course will take place through both Magic Kingdom & Epcot as well as in between. There are stops at each mile for photo ops with your favorite Disney characters as well as a run through Cinderella's castle just before mile 6!!!

 What good is a race with out some free stuff?  With your registration comes a official Disney Princess Half Marathon technical shirt and a MEDAL. Yes you read that right, a Disney Princess MEDAL. Which I have to admit, is what first sold me on this challenge.

The race registration opened Tuesday and sold out within 6 HOURS!!! CRAZY. There are more than 20,000 runners so it will certainly be very different than what I am used to. They place you in different starting corrals based on an estimated finish time. You must be able to provide a finish time for a 10K or better to be placed in a corral other than the last. You must also be able to keep a 16:00/mile pace or they will unfortunately "sweep" you and take you to the finish line.

Although I am very excited for the race, I am a little disappointed that the registration fee does not include a ticket into the park. $170 per person is pretty steep but the experience is supposed to be well worth it, park entry afterwards or not.


My only question now is which character will I be dressing up as? Aurora or Cinderella?  Do you have some Run Disney Tips? Want to recommend an Orlando hotel? Have questions about the race? Leave a comment or send me an email! Don't forget to subscribe so you can follow along!!

STAY CONNECTED

As some of you may be able to tell we have a new look that we have been working on for the blog lately. We are still working on it but please let us know what you think!!!


I want to update you of some other changes as well. LIVE from the LIDO DECK has joined Twitter!
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Can't wait to share our new look! Special Thanks to Limefish Studio for re designing our logo!

National Cherry Blossom Festival: PHOTOS

Here are some more photos from our day in DC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Cherry Blossom Festival

Although I have lived in Northern Virginia my entire life, I had never been to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. There were 100 trees originally given to the United States by Japan. Now, each year between late March and mid April, the Tidal Basin is surrounded by pink and white petals.

I took a Wednesday off work and headed to our nations capital with my sister & Nana. We drove to our local Metro station which is the easiest way to get around DC. The stop you want to get off is the Smithsonian. Once you are at street level, head left past the Washington Monument. You will pass some restrooms on the right side a little before the "pencil". I would take a moment to stop here because the bathrooms are few and far between. You will then turn left just past the monument and see the Tidal Basin, the Jefferson Memorial and the gorgeous blossoms.

The Cherry Blossom Festival provides tons of events throughout the month, more so on the weekends when it is more popular. There was a nice stage with different entertainment when we were there, with a local high schools band and other local talents. We stopped and ate a packed lunch at the picnic tables in front of the stage. There were also food trucks and little shops if you wanted a souvenir. We headed down towards the Jefferson Memorial along the basin. Even for a week day the area was pretty popular so I am sure there are tons of people who visit over the weekends. If you don't like large crowds or want to really be able to walk around with out much distraction, you might consider going during the week. We made our way completely around the basin, stopping at both the FDR & MLK memorial areas. On this side of the Basin, there are a lot of benches for you to enjoy the gorgeous view!

DC is less than an hour from Baltimore, and just a few hours from many Mid Atlantic cruise ports. If you are cruising around this time next year, look into the Festival as a side trip! There is plenty of museums, memorials and monuments to keep you busy.

Carnival Victory AGAIN: Debarkation

Whew! Sorry for the distance between posts! I have been training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon- but more on that later!


Debarkation- everyones least favorite day. The night before you have all your stuff packed up. You can leave your luggage outside of your door for them to collect and for your pickup once you are back at your home port. A lot of people take that route but we prefer to carry off because of how hectic debarkation can be. You add in looking for your luggage that morning along with the other grumpy passengers getting off board and it could throw a wrench in your plans.

We had an early flight to catch at MIA so we were up early to catch a little to eat, room service of course! Then we waited for them to call for any one who was doing self assist debarkation. Basically that is when you take all of your belongs off yourself.  We had packed up our stuff and hung out on the lido. They did self assist by deck and since we were on the Panorama, we were about the last to be called. With that being said we were still off, through customs in 15 minutes and at Miami Airport by 7:45 am.  The airport was getting busy so the earlier you can get there, the better.


Carnival and all other lines have "guidelines" in regards to what is the earliest you should book a flight on debarkation day. In this instance, the recommendation for leaving Miami is 11:30- 12pm. Our flight left at 11:05, just slightly sooner than their recommendation. Our only options were early morning flights that we would NEVER make, this flight or a 9 pm flight. This worried me some but as you can see, we made it just fine. We have also always came in to the cruise the day of, either by flight or car. The most important thing is going with what you are comfortable with, if it will add extra stress to have to rush to the cruise port to make it on time or to the airport to make your flight, it may be better to have a pre/ post cruise stay planned.

Carnival Victory AGAIN: CoCo Cay (Little Stirrup Cay) Part 2

After a couple hours out there I finally made it back to my dear boyfriend who had found a lounger under a nice palm. Once I returned, we took a walk to the closest bar and went back to relax. It was about 85* so I managed to reapply sun screen plenty but it didn't help. I was out in the reflective water for too long and managed to get a free sunburn souvenir! It wasn't bothering me so we took a walk to where lunch was being served.

They offered a BBQ lunch for free as they do on Carnivals private islands, Half Moon Cay. You were able to use your sail and sign card at the bar but the drinks were WAYYYYY more expensive than on shore. I am sure that it costs them an arm & a leg to rent out the island and that is the reasoning for the extra cost. I was disappointed that they didn't offer my mocha chocolate getaway that I had been drinking all week but they only were serving generic Daiquiris & mixed drinks.

We decided to eat lunch at a shaded picnic table and then went exploring. They offered a walking tour of the island as an excursion. They had someone explaining about the low tide, animals & plants. We decided to just walk the trail by ourselves but I am sure the tour was nice. We got to see a lot of iguanas and small lizards as well as seeing where the people who take care of the island lived. It was getting kind of hot so we slipped our feet in the water for a bit more before walking to the beach closer to where we entered the island. The area was crowded and there was a lot of music playing but people seemed to be having a good time. A lot of people were playing out in the water. They had one of those inflatable water parks as well as some seadoo rentals and different snorkeling activities.

We stayed there for quite some time enjoying our last bit of time on the island. We stopped by the cash only market to do some shopping from locals who came by boat to sell their goods. After that we hopped on a tender and then headed back to the boat.

We would definitely like to come back to CoCo Cay again as well like to  try some other private islands. It is a relaxing day in port for sure! Have you ever been to a cruise line private island? Which one? What did you like about it?