Our Double Fantasy - back to back July 14-28, 2012 - pictures added

[Ready to go]

Hi, We too are from WI (the Milwaukee area) and are scheduled to cruise next May. Does your family always drive and how long of a drive is it? I have mentioned to my husband that with plane fares being what they are, perhaps we should drive. I just hate the idea that I would have to take even more vacation time off!

 

[noahsmom]

Hi, We too are from WI (the Milwaukee area) and are scheduled to cruise next May. Does your family always drive and how long of a drive is it? I have mentioned to my husband that with plane fares being what they are, perhaps we should drive. I just hate the idea that I would have to take even more vacation time off!

We live by Madison so we probably go a slightly different route. We leave home at 4 am and drive to Atlanta. The hotel we stay at is on the north part of Atlanta (Marietta) and we get there around 7 pm. The next morning we leave the hotel by 6 am so we can get through Atlanta before traffic gets heavy, we have breakfast once we are past Atlanta. This gets us to WDW around 2 pm. If you are going straight to Port Canaveral, add an hour.

Since you're by Milwaukee you'd be going through Chicago, we don't go that way but I'd think you'd want to leave very early to get through Chicago before morning traffic.

The 1st time we drove it was Christmas morning. The Badgers were playing in a bowl game and DS got tickets from Santa. We left home that morning at about 7 am and went as far as Chattanooga.

Hope that helps, if you have other questions let me know. I now prefer to drive. I don't have to worry about packing. We can take as many suitcases as we want, it doesn't matter what they weigh, and we can purchase whatever we want (alcohol, snow globes, etc.).

 

[EngineerDad]

Great TR, especially the fabulous underwater shots.
We love snorkeling but were not sure about bringing our gear on a cruise, did you bring fins as well or just mask and snorkel ?
I would also love to know what kind of camera you used for the underwater shots. DW wants to get me a decent waterproof camera since the cheap disposable ones give terrible clarity and color cast.

 

[noahsmom]

Great TR, especially the fabulous underwater shots.
We love snorkeling but were not sure about bringing our gear on a cruise, did you bring fins as well or just mask and snorkel ?
I would also love to know what kind of camera you used for the underwater shots. DW wants to get me a decent waterproof camera since the cheap disposable ones give terrible clarity and color cast.

We did take our own fins but we drove so it was easy. Also, we purchased bags to carry our equipment that was very reasonable from scuba dot com. They were $29.95 and one bag held the equip for DH & me, DS has longer fins so he needed a bag of his own. However, fins were available everywhere we snorkeled. It's the mask that matters the most.

My camera - the St Maartin pictures were taken with an Olympus Stylus 1030SW. Once back on the ship I rinsed off the camera and left it to dry. Later I noticed a square piece of metal in the sink and thought it was something of DS's. Nope, it was the piece that goes around the lens opening. With it off the camera was no longer waterproof. So, I purchased a new camera on the ship. Thankfully their prices are pretty normal, but it's money we weren't expecting to spend. The new camera is a Nikon Coolpix AW100 in blue. I do love the new camera and it takes great pictures. The price on the ship was $299.

Hope this helps, thanks for your kind words about my pictures. I don't feel I can take much credit, with scenery like we saw it's hard to take a bad picture.

 

[EngineerDad]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.
DW saw the question and reply but did not realize it was my question and sent me link telling me someone else was thinking about the same gift idea as we were
Good idea get a proper bag for the snorkel gear. I just spent the last week snorkeling and spearfishing at the cottage and realize how comfortable I am with my gear, I would hate to leave any behind and have something that doesn't work well on the trip.