I woke up at 7:00 AM and went to the gym to see if I could find a space to do a workout. I carved a little space for myself and practiced a Shapes class. Everyone else got up when I was done around 8:00 AM and we all had breakfast in Cabanas before going to the Walt Disney Theatre to see if we could get DD* on an earlier golf cart ride down the pier so she could save her joints and energy for walking on the nature trail and doing a little snorkeling. When we had checked the day before, the only slot open was 11:30 AM but they told me that they might be able to accommodate her on an earlier cart if we were willing to wait standby.
(*My DD has a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, hyper mobile form, or hEDS. It causes a lot of different kinds of symptoms including chronic pain, joint subluxations, fatigue, and more. To a casual observer, she looks like a normal able-bodied 16 year old girl, but she is on daily pain medication and lots of walking can cause flare ups. It can be hard to have an invisible chronic disease so if you ever see anyone taking a golf cart that looks like they don't need it, you just never know what they might be struggling with.)
When we arrived around 9:15 AM, a group was just leaving and the crew members there said it would absolutely be no problem to get her on an earlier cart. I waited in the theatre with her until they said they had a cart ready and then I met up with DH and we disembarked together around 9:30 and made the half mile walk from the ship to the tram station. DD's cart came along after awhile and the timing was actually pretty good. She only had to wait for us for a minute or so at the tram stop.
We boarded the tram and went to the main portion of the island, arriving around 10:00 AM. It was not really clear where everything was and when we asked a crew member where we could find a map she said she didn't have any. So we wandered around a bit and found a big map around the corner. Not sure why she didn't direct us there. Maybe she thought we were asking for a paper map? We snapped a photo with our phone so we would have it handy.
We got our bearings and managed to find our way to the nature trail. The nature trail isn't too long but it was worthwhile because at the end of the trail is a really beautiful beach with some really cool rock formations and there weren't very many people. DD said she needed a break so I sat down with her after wandering around and taking some pictures and checking out the water. DH decided to keep walking and see if he could find the lighthouse at the tip of the island.
DH came back and I saw some people walking down the beach with snorkeling vests. I had brought our snorkels and masks but not vests so I walked down the beach to the lifeguard station and got us some snorkel vests. Thus equipped, we went out into the water which was cold at first, but we acclimated. We found some small patches of coral here and there with some little fish.
By 11:30 we were hungry and ready for lunch so we made our way to one of the restaurant areas. We all agreed the food was better than
Castaway Cay. That bar isn't super high for us, though, so that isn't exactly high praise. After lunch we went to a little Junkanoo festival they had that was pretty cool. I really like how they left this island very natural and brought in some cultural elements, too.
We decided to make our way back to the ship around 12:30 (no problem getting a golf cart back for DD, while DH and I walked). We figured it would be a good time to ride the Aqua Duck without a wait. We were correct. We hung out on the pool deck for about an hour before returning to the room for showers.
Once we were all cleaned up, we began a load of laundry, had some snacks, and I attended another animation class. While we snacked on the pool deck, we watched people making their way (late) back to the ship. We didn't get underway until pretty late after all-aboard. I hope those people got a stern talking-to.
It was pirate night, but DH and I aren't super keen on the pirate menu so we had a reservation at Palo for 7:00 PM. DD got into her pirate outfit, DH and I dressed up for Palo and all of us went to see the show that night, which was a juggler named David DiMuzio. I don't think we had seen this juggler before, but he had a few elements of his show that were very similar to some other jugglers we've seen. We bugged out just a bit early to get to our reservation.
Our dinner at Palo was very good and our server was exceptional. We will definitely be asking for her when we're back on the Fantasy in June. After our meal we returned to the room, changed our clothes and realized we could catch the very end of the juggler's act from the second show that we had not seen earlier, so we did that. While we were at Palo, DD hit up the quick serve on the pool deck for dinner and attended a rehearsal in Vibe for the pirate flash mob.
DH and I returned to the room after the show and relaxed a bit before the fireworks. We usually go for the top deck for fireworks, but it was pretty full so we ended up down on the pool deck, but that ended up being fine so we could catch the flashmob, which happened after the fireworks at the dance party. DD stayed at the party for awhile but DH and I returned to the room to go to bed.
