DAY 3 - November 19th, 2011 - Castaway Cay (Part 1)
I found myself waking up at about 8:30 wondering if we were able to dock or not (because of all the winds we experienced last night). Were SO used to hearing and feeling the thrusters when we dock anywhere on a cruise ship (because we normally stay in aft staterooms). And, that works as a sort of alarm clock! Anyway, I opened the curtains, went on the verandah, and saw this:
WE MADE IT! And given the time, I feel we made it in a fairly easy manner (perhaps first try?)! I then proceeded to take a few more pictures of our verandah view. (We were slightly disappointed to see that the Christmas decorations werent up yet on the island...normally theres a HUGE tree on the dock.)
We got ready and then went upstairs to Cabanas for breakfast. It wasnt too crowded and we were in and out pretty fast (mainly because we were eating very lightly...we like to grab lunch right when it opens on the island and were normally never hungry from it after eating a big breakfast!). After we ate, we made our way downstairs to the deck 1 midship gangway. Getting off the ship was smooth, quick, and painless! (It was roughly 9:30 at this point.) After getting off the ship, we grabbed a couple of towels from the Cast Members handing them out and then started the walk to the beaches! As we went past the Post Office, we saw Stitch posing for pictures. Its typically a ritual for us to take a picture with a character here, but we dont care for Stitch at all, so we passed. We continued walking and I took some pictures along the way.
Once we hit Mount Rustmore, we saw (if I remember correctly), Minnie and Goofy posing for pictures. They both had pretty decent lines, so we continued on to the first gift shop! I noticed new merchandise designs and selections (or, new to us), so I took pictures!
After walking through the store (and not buying anything), we continued on.
We made our way to the tram stop so that we could catch a tram to Serenity Bay! We waited about 5 minutes and then boarded a tram. After a lovely tram ride, we had arrived! Ahhhh...we found a couple of loungers underneath an umbrella so we set our stuff down and made ourselves comfortable! The next three photos show the beautiful view we had from our chairs!
It was about 10:00 at this point and James was already itching for a Konk Kooler! Its 5 oclock somewhere he said, haha! Well, after 30 minutes, I give in and walk to the bar to get us a couple. They were so delicious!
Having gotten a little red from our time laying out in the sun yesterday, we mostly stayed under our umbrella while at Serenity Bay. It was so peaceful and relaxing, though! Just after 11:30, we could smell the barbeque! To us, thats pretty much a dinner bell! We gathered up all our stuff and went to grab some lunch. It was scrumptious!
After we ate, we boarded a tram back to the family beach area. Picture time!
