pleasurable. (The barb of the Southern stingray can be danger- ous, but the staff of this marine park regularly clips them, just as we would trim our toenails.) There are 53 Southern stingrays here, and all but one is
female, and they gather, knowing mealtime is approaching. Julianne, a Bahamian native, smiles broadly and helps Keanu feed them shrimp and calamari. The sun breaks through tropical clouds, and it becomes possible to photograph the stingrays underwater with just point-and-shoot cameras. Far too soon, our time with the docile stingrays is over. Keanu says, “Dad, this is the coolest thing ever, better than
any zoo!” I agree, while remembering goats trying to eat his clothing at a petting zoo once upon a time. Saying goodbye to the stingrays, we stroll over to the
Castaways family beach, pick out two lounge chairs and grab Keanu’s new Mickey ball for some water sports time. He’s a natural at two-man volleyball and has Dad all to himself for game after game. Hunger overtakes us so we haul out of the jade green lagoon and belly up to Cookies’ BarBQ for ribs and sweetly spiced mahi-mahi, plus coleslaw and corn on the cob—great summertime beach fare! During lunch the clouds build ominously, the sky boils and darkens, and thunder booms across the Cay, louder than any
A little boy plays with Dori at Nemo’s Reef—a fanciful water-play area aboard the Disney Dream.
pirate cannonade, I’d wager. Then rain of biblical magnitude falls in buck- ets from heavy low clouds, a tropical cloudburst, with gales blowing the rain in sideways under our picnic shel- ter, and nearly onto our plates. It feels like a movie set with fan-blown sheets of water, madly waving palm fronds, tin roofs tattooed by the torrent, and all this in a Disney setting! Surreal, but the storm passes in about 30 min- utes and seems somehow to be part of the show we came to see.
‘The beach is open!’
The clouds lift and lifeguards mega- phone the news: “The beach is open!” Indeed, it is empty, as the throng sought refuge on the ship. Keanu and I build a sand castle, our fi rst such construct since he was in Hawaii as a 3-year-old.
24 EnCompass January/February 2012
www.AAA.com
Courtesy of Disney Cruise Line/Matt Stroshane.
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