My apologies for the delay, but boy have I been busy! Thank goodness none of the kids have gotten sick, or I'd really be in trouble!
Day 7 -
Castaway Cay
Heavenly
That is the only word to describe our day on Castaway Cay. About an hour into our day, I was envious of the next cruise because they would get 2 days here. I would have much preferred a day here over Key West.
While waiting to disembark, we met the Castaway Cay nurse. She said she had seen me before on the ship and that I looked like her aunt. We asked about her time with Disney. She really enjoyed it and said she was near the end of her contract. DS6 was bouncing around, and we joked that we'd probably see her at least once over the course of the day.
The kids were eager to play on the beach. Being from New Jersey, this isn't new to them, but they love our days in Cape May. We walked all the way in and had our pictures taken with the Magic in the background, with the Flying Dutchman in the background (very cool!), and with Captain Jack and the Flying Dutchman. We also found the buoys and another cruiser was kind enough to take a family picture for us. We had reserved snorkle equipment and found our way to the pick-up location. We told my mom and Joe that we'd meet them on the beach as they brought their own equipment. We agreed to head allllllllllllllllllllll the way down the beach to where the break is for the stingray beach begins. It was a hike, especially carrying snorkle equipment for 6 plus assorted beach items. We found Mom walking along the water looking for us. It was a hike, but I'm glad we went all the way down. It was quiet and we had our pick of chaises. We were hoping for a hammock, but they were taken. It was also quite convenient to have the bathrooms right there.
It was a perfect beach day
. It wasn't terribly hot, there was a nice breeze, and eveyone but me thought the water was fantastic. I'm one of those people who can live without air conditioning. The water temp was probably in the 70s, but it may as well have been in the 40s. There was no way I was going in past my ankles! The kids have never snorkled before and were eager to try out the equipment. DH took over the kids here: he's certified for scuba and he was willing to get wet. DS9, DS6, and DD8 were like fish. They only came out of the water once that day (for lunch) and that was under protest. DD10 is more like me. She got wet and then built sand castles, decorating them with seashells.
We had an 11:00 reservation for the stingrays. This was really neat. They gave you the science lesson beforehand, and then led you to a guide. We were a party of 8 so we had a guide to ourselves. I don't remember her name, but she was the 2nd guide in from the right. She was very knowledgeable and great with the kids. We brought our underwater cameras for pictures. I love that the stingrays are conditioned to eat off Mickey Ears!!! DS6, DS9, DD8, DH, Mom, Joe, and I fed the stingrays. DD10 did NOT like it at all. She levitated the first time a stingray brushed up against her legs. She stayed long enough to touch one and then she got out of the water and played in the sand. Oh well, at least she tried. We probably kept our guide talking the longest. We looked up at one point and everyone else was out snorkeling and we were still talking. DH, mom, Joe, and 2 of the kids went out to swim with them. I was not getting my knees wet, so I stayed with the other 2 kids and watched. The stingrays felt like cats brushing agains your legs in the water. It wasn't unpleasant, but it startled me the first few times. Overall, it was a great experience and I'm glad we booked this one instead of the one in Grand Cayman.
We headed back over to our chaises and DH, Mom, and Joe decided to go on a hidden Mickey search. I handed each on a camera and said to have fun. The kids were content to float and snorkel with me. It had warmed up a bit by now and I pulled one of those low chairs to the water. My knees actually got wet. A photographer came by and we all got in the water for a picture. I felt bad because he tried to get closer to us and got his sneakers soaking wet. The 2 pictures he took came out great! I saw quite a few of the shots at Shutters later and the pictures were fantastic. It was great to see the unposed pictures of kids at the beach.
We were getting hungry and decided to get lunch. The other 3 were still snorkeling. I figured if they came back and didn't see us, they would know where we went. Our drink server, Eva, was on the line we picked. The kids filled her in on the stingrays. We managed to find a picnic table and sat down. John, our head server, was keeping watch over things. I flagged him down and asked if he had sent desserts to our room the night before. He gave me a sly smile, and said "What desserts?" I thanked him, telling him I sampled everything. We also compared our tans...he's Scottish and I'm half Irish/half Italian, but with 100% Irish skin! My legs were as white as his!!!
Where we were sitting on the beach, you could hear music playing. It was rather nice, kinda playing in the background. Well, here at the picnic pavillion, it was pretty loud. I was even happier we walked all the way down the beach; the music would have given me a headache by the end of the day.
DH found us somehow. Boy, there are a LOT of people on the ship. You don't realize it till you're at one end of the beach looking back and the place is packed!!! That pavillion holds a lot of people too! DH wasn't hungry, but thirsty. The kids had finished eating and we headed to the soda fountains for DH. I forget what song was playing (maybe Kenny Chesney's When the Sun Goes Down), but it was a great West Coast Swing/cha-cha. Once upon a time, before children, DH and I danced 4 nights a week. Well, I looked at DH and said let's dance. He gave me a look and I said tough, I wanted to dance. So, there we are, in front of Cookies with full sodas in hand, dancing. The kids were bopping along too. Eva sees us and starts clapping. Well, that attracted more attention. A CM came up and took our sodas and my beach bag so we could dance easier. I'm not sure how long we danced, but it was more than a few minutes. When we finished, there was a round of applause from everyone watching. We thanked everyone and then DH dipped me!!! We giggled like school kids, gathered up our kids, and headed back to the beach.
When we arrived back to our chaises, more people had discovered our end of the beach. There were a few kids there and our kids joined in. Someone had a float and everyone took turns. I was very impressed at how well the kids in general behaved on the ship. It was even nicer when these children offered to share the float with my kids. Everyone took turns and there were no complaints. Mom and Joe had had enough of the sun and said they were heading back to the ship. The kids wanted to swim some more, so we stayed behind.
About 3:00, we packed up and turned in our snorkel equipment. We stopped at the gift shop to look around. It was a madhouse because it was the end of the day. The kids had spent their money, but I told them they could pick out a t-shirt that said Castaway Cay and Mommy and Daddy would treat them. It takes a loooooooooong time for 4 kids to pick out just the right shirt!!! While they were looking, I actually found some on sale and bought them for Santa. DH kept the kids occupied while I made the purchase. On our way back to the ship, we saw the first aid station. We stopped in to see the nurse. She looked up and smiled. We said we had to stop in to at least say "hi" and that DS6 made it through the day without injuring himself. We asked how busy she had been, and she said she had a few people, mostly skinned knees and such. The kids looked all around the place and she was kind enough to answer all their questions.
We were going to walk and decided to wait for the tram car (watch the tram car please.....watch the tram car please....). We passed the post office and I told DH I forgot about postcards!!! I had to have a postcard with a Castaway Cay postmark. We went back on the ship, I got money, and headed to the post office. They don't sell postcards at the post office, only stamps. Back to the ship for a postcard. Well, Mickey's Mates is closed in port. I wasn't walking back to the shop on Castaway Cay for a postcard either. I went back to the cabin to tell DH. He said, "What about the post cards in the drawer?" Ding ding ding.....I forgot about those. I wrote out 3 postcards really quick and headed back off the ship to the post office. I managed to get there before he closed. Mission accomplished!
A big thank you to my Mom - she went to the debarkation presentation for us!!! That saved us a chunk of time. Wait a minute - WHAT time do we need to be at breakfast??? 6:00...oh, that will be fun....
We managed to get everyone showered and ready for dinner. No bad sunburns either. Yeah!!! Dinner was at Animator's Palate. It was the "Till We meet Again" menu. We found out that this would be our server Antonio's last night - ever. He had been with Disney for 5 or 6 years, and that this was his last cruise. He was going back to Mexico. He said it had been a fantastic experience, but it was time for him to move on. He also told us of all the things he had to do before disembarking tomorrow.....like have his luggage out the door by 11:00 just like us. He also had at least 2 pages of items he had to have checked off by supervisors before leaving on top of his regular duties. He looked frazzled, but his service was as good as every other night. While at dinner, we ordered 2 bottles of Buena Vista Chardonnay to be delivered to our room. We tasted it during the wine tasting event, and decided to order some to take home. We asked that the wine be room temperature and not chilled. No problem, the wine would be delivered to our stateroom.
We went to Shutters after dinner and ordered our Christmas cards. It ended up being the one with Sorcerer Mickey. I rounded out our package with pictures from the day at Castaway Cay. Boy, those developers are fast!!! We were told we could pick up our cards the next morning at 7:00. Filip helped me again...he was really nice the entire trip.
We went to the theater to see Remeber the Magic. Every show was great, and this was no exception. I'm so glad my kids can sit through something like this. They all seem to be musically inclined in some fashion or another and this piques their interests. We bid goodnight to Mom and Joe and headed back to the room for packing. I had started on this before dinner. I had 2 our our 6 suitcases packed and ready to go. We got the kids ready for bed and pulled everything from their stateroom into ours to complete the packing. The wine we ordered had arrived, but it was chilled. DH called the front desk and explained the problem. They told him to go to Lumieres and exchange the bottles. Great, problem solved. I continued packing. Geeze, how did we accumulate so much stuff over the week? Then I realized how much "free" stuff we had received: 2 stateroom gifts from our TA, 4 sets of Mickey Mouse mortarboards, 4 graduation t-shirts, 6 DVC caps, 6 DVC lanyards, assored papers (i.e. Personal Navigators). All this on top of stuff we actually bought! And we had 4 bottles of wine to pack in our luggage due to carryon policies. Whew! DH arrived back quite some time later. They had trouble finding unchilled bottles of wine. They said someone would bring down warm bottles sometime tonight. Uh-oh, they NEEDED to go in luggage. It was already 10:00. Antonio knocks on our door about 5 minutes later, apologizing for the problem with the wine. We told him is wasn't a problem and that we were surprised he was delivering the wine. He said he offered to bring us the wine. He also brought us some of the diner menus from tonight's meal - one of each character. We thanked him again for all his service through the week and we wished him well going back home. He still had to get his suitcases out by 11:00 too, and bid us goodnight.
We managed to get our stuff packed and out the door at 11:00 on the dot. We just looked at each other and sighed. Wow...what a job! I didn't think packing would be that tough. But we made it. We made our first request for a wake-up call - 5:15 am. Good thing we're used to getting up early...DH gets up this time every day for work. We knew the kids would move, but they'd be zombies. I enjoyed my last night of being rocked to sleep by the ship. I would definitely miss this. I enjoyed the movement of the ship.
Next up....debarkation....
It was really nice!!! I looked at DH and said "25 year anniversary?" We're currently at 14 1/2. He nodded and said okay. He's so good!!! Of course he knows to say yes....he know's I'll probably change my mind about a million times before then!!! I should have taken a picture of it....
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You'll have a wonderful time in the cruise!!! Make sure they know it's your daughter's birthday.
