The Castaway Cays Miracle (continuation of: The Disney Dream)

The cruise that we decided to spend our short vacation at was "The Disney Dream". The day before we had to leave the paradise cruise, we docked at an island in Bahamas. Disney owned that spectacular island which is called:"Castaway Cays". The beach over there was amazing, with the crystal sand shinning from the sun. The water was clear and full of life. We went snorkeling there and saw thousands and thousands of colorful fish. I was really surprised that you could swim with the sting rays and actually feed them. And just by looking at the word "sting" in "sting ray", you might be thinking that we are crazy. But the people managed to take off the sting rays' stings.

The island also had a biking trail, so we rented 5 bikes and off we went. Around the trail there was an exotic forest, which was just beautiful. How does Disney just amaze you in a second like that??

Indoor Sky Diving

Sky diving is an interesting activity, but how can a kid (like me) jump off a plane risking his life. But there is also another way to sky dive which is called Indoor Sky Diving. For sure you will never, I mean NEVER find an indoor sky diving place in Beirut! Our only chance of indoor sky diving was in Florida, U.S.A. So, guess what we ended up doing...

First of all I was nervous specially when the instructor started to give us a bunch of signals to memorize. Because he will be sky diving with us too and he can not talk while sky diving. It was really cool and amazing. I felt like I was actually flying! The name of the company was 100% correct it was a once in a life time experience!

Here I am (My Poem for my graduation to Middle School)

1 Year passes,

The second and third year approaches,

The fourth year fades away,

and now we are here.

So much diligence that we put into the years.

But it all turned up to be valuable.

So many teachers we miss,

that were not in the upcoming years.

So many students that are not in this school anymore.

So many classes we included in...

I will never forget the Elementary marvelous adventure.

Before, the first time I graduated,

I said:

I am finally here, I am almost there, and soon I will be...

graduating again,

and here I am.

The Disney Dream

I always knew about Disney and about all of the Disney parks. But it never came to my mind that they also have cruises. After all of the years of building they created what they call "The Disney Dream". So we thought it would be a good idea to sail aboard with them since we were already in Florida. The truth is Disney is a spoiler, the minute we entered the GIGANTIC ship they were already welcoming us: " We would like to welcome the Boustany family!" And all of the staff were cheering and clapping. Our room was better than what we all expected, it even had a balcony. Okay, so if you are already impressed by this cruise line, let me tell you about the shows. There was a huge stage, and when I say "HUGE", I mean it. The weird thing is that on the stage they had so many effects, like fire spraying out of the stage, smoke surrounding the stage, actual fireworks on the stage, bubbles and balloons floating around the theatre. This is what I call entertainment. Well think about it there are about 4 thousand people on the ship that all have to be token care of. The ship is fun and delightful for every body (even the grown ups). They have a long slide that extends to the beginning of the ship to the end. Plus, it is really fun, but the line is really long! We only stayed for 3 days, we really wish that we could stay there for ever!!

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/dream/

Extravaganza On Stage

When you travel to London or New York the first thing that comes to mind is broadway shows.

I had no idea that a broadway show can go on and continue every day for more than 10 years. And it seems that in every show all of the seats are full. It is a miracle to get good seats since some of the seats the view of the stage is half covered. We decided to watch Billy Eliot, and it was an amazing performance indeed and it was almost not true. But the hardest part of watching a broadway show is finding good seats. And my mom did an amazing job on finding them. The show was just spectacular and one of a kind. Plus, the boy who was acting the roll of Billy Eliot was extremely talented. For example how can a boy flip in the air (with a string) then continue dancing without being dizzy. See, the whole thing was not only amazing, it was amazing times a hundred. I totally recommend this broadway show if you intend to travel to London or New York.

Swimming with Manatees

Swimming With Manatees...

The truth is that all I can say is that it was just an amazing experience. But you also have to keep in mind that manatees are actually an endangered species! Plus, the saddest part is that some "swimming with manatees" programs take about 30 people on one small boat. And once they find a manatee the 30 or more people jump in the water and crowd on one poor manatee! But the good thing is that the government has constructed new laws and here are some of them:

1- You are not allowed to splash or kick when you are swimming with a manatee.

2- You cannot hit or punch a manatee.

3- You are not allowed to reach out to a manatee and pet it if it does not come near you.

And...

100- You cannot chase or follow a manatee.

101- Do not scream, shout or annoy the manatee.

If you think that the rules are strict you should see the rest. If you do not follow the rules they give you very expensive fines to pay, for example $ 50,000 .

It was the first time I ever saw a manatee for real. The manatee that I saw was huge and the weird part was that it was just a baby! I got to touch the manatee since it came near me, it was such an amazing and beautiful creature. I just hope that they never become extinct.