Sorry it took me so long to get to this last installment (work's been busy, and I've been getting home a bit late).
The remaining days on the cruise were just super. After our day at
Castaway Cay, it was on to Nassau. Nassau is, well, Nassau. The usual stuff: being screamed at for hair braiding wherever we walked, being touched and poked in the strawmarket, etc, etc. We also took a ferry over to Atlantis and just walked around for a while. Jacob didn't even want to get off of the ship, so he stayed in the Oceaneer's Lab the whole time!
Emily went with us walking around Nassau and over to the Atlantis. She seemed a bit bored by the whole thing, but I think she found it interesting as the locals yelled at us to buy things and constantly asked her or her "mommy" to have her hair braided! As always, I wished that she had linked up with some kids her own age, but it wasn't to be and I accepted that.
Nassau was incredibly hot the day of our visit, and we made several drink stops throughout the day.
Our ferry returned back from Atlantis at about 3Pm, and I had had enough of Nassau. DW and Emily decided to try and shop in a jewelry store (you know, one of those stores where they follow you around and make you feel uncomfortable!). I just wanted to plop myself on the pool deck and get some chicken fingers at Pluto's dog house, which is exactly what I did.
Later on, we pushed off from Nassau and headed to our second "dip" at Castaway Cay. After Nassau, Castaway Cay would be a welcome change, to say the least.
That night, dinner was in Animator's Palette, and the colors did finally change! I thought it was pretty cool. Emily was unexcited. Jacob was mildly interested. (It's kind of hard to be a Disney fan all by yourself, sometimes!). After dinner, we went off to see the show. Emily clearly wasn't going to even make a pretense of trying to go to Aloft, and I didn't say anything.
Following day was our second "dip" at Castaway Cay. Jacob and Emily and I rented the large "aquatrike" and took it out for a spin in the bay. Boy is that thing hard work! Even though it was only around 9AM, it was already very, very hot, and it takes a lot of pedalling to get the aqua trike to make any forward progress in the water. Even though we had rented the trike for a full half hour, after about 15 minutes we had had enough.
We picked up our floats (I had rented the floats on line for both of the Castaway Cay days), and spent much of the day just lazing at the beach and going in the water. We also entered the crab races, which were a real hoot (we didn't win, however). In fact, it was so hot that we decided not to take the bikes out for an island tour.
Around 4PM we packed it in and headed back to the Wonder for our final night of the cruise (I was already getting depressed at the prospect of no more ship and going back to work!). Dinner that night was in Parrot Cay, which was beautifully themed. I ordered a prime rib, which was really delicious. After dinner, the show was the new "Toy Story" musical: wow. Really a fantastic show, with incredble props and effects.
Following dinner, we all went up on the pool deck and watched "Camp Rock" on the big LED screen attached to one of the funnels. It was sad to think that the trip was coming to an end, but that's life!
We reluctantly headed back to the cabin, packed up and put our bags out for the traditional hallway pickup. We received tickets for breakfast: our breakfast time was 6:45 AM at Parrot Cay and we were told we would leave the ship immediately after breakfast was over.
The next morning we actually made it to breakfast at the appointed time. We got to see our table mates one last time (I hope we see them again in the future), and true to Disney's word, we were off the ship and in the terminal building by 8 AM. We breezed through customs and were driving away from the port by around 8:30. Disney has the most incredibly efficient and well planed debarkation that I have ever experienced on a cruise.
Well, that's my quickie report of our first-ever
DCL cruise. A few final thoughts:
High points: 1. Castaway Cay: everything that they say about this place is true, and then some! 2. The shows: high quality family entertainment that isn't dumbed down for kids, but can still be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. 3. Free soda: it was nice not to have to buy "soda cards" for soft drinks. 4. Last and not least: family time together; something which is in very short supply in my household.
Low points: Not convincing Emily to get to Aloft on the first night of the cruise, when she might have linked up with some peers. 2. the overcrowding in the pools -- the kid's pool was incredibly overcrowded, to the point where it was almost a safety hazard. 3. The cruise was too short (not Disney's fault, but 4 days just is not enough!).
Thanks for reading. Take care!
Can wait till the next addition!
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