Well, for all of you that have been following and for those that have not, I apologize for the delay in my posting. It seems that I just have not had the time lately but here we go...
Thursday, Day at Sea...
We wake up on the latter side of 8 and get ready for the day. It is just magnificent outside as we cruise towards
Castaway Cay. We head up to get some breakfast at Topsiders. It's just the kids and I because Mary decided to hit the gym early this morning.
We head back up to the room and meet up. Moira and James decide they want to go to Detective School in the Club so I take them up there. This is good because I then can go to the Sports trivia contest in Diversions while Mary heads for her facial at 11.
The sports trivia is fun and I do pretty well but I miss winning by one answer. I think there were 20 questions and I got 14 right and the winner got 15, I think. Oh well, it was a 30 minutes of fun and alone time. I head to go and get the kids now but they have already gone up and started eating lunch. They are in Animators by the time I get upstairs and I let them finish. Of course, once I should up they were finished whether I wanted them to be or not.
We decided to head back to the room and the kids want to go swimming. So, they changed into their suits and we raced up to the pool. Drat, again with the cleaning. If I had a complaint it was this. On both sea days, they decided to clean the pool. Hmmm, you would think that with everyone on the ship, beautiful day some people may want to swim. Oh well, they were finishing up so we waited around (about an hour) for them to fill the pool up. This time they emptied the entire pool. Mary came up and we hung out there and watched the kids get in some pool time.
I left them all at the pool while I went down to take the Galley Tour. It was around 2 and we were broken up into two groups in front of Lumiere's. We were introduced to the Galley officer in charge of everything. He then introduced us to all the chefs of the respective restaurants. He also introduced us to the chef in charge of preparing the food for the crew. He said he was the most important chef (only he should know). We walked into the kitchen of Lumiere's and they showed us eveything (although at a distance). It was amazinng how big this kitchen, whcih is actually two kitchens (Parrot Cay's is connected to the kitchen). The stoves and soup bin are huge and eveything about it says BIG is better. We asked questions and they answered. I was amazed at how much and how quickly they are able to prepare food items. Everything is spaced out and is prepared by different people. Everyone in the kitchen has a specific task. We made our way down the kitchen and came to the pastry area. There we were introduced to I thiink the most important chef on the ship, the pastry chef. We all thanked him for a job well donw and he told us some interesting facts about all the desserts and how they are prepared. He also gave us some chocolate chip cookies (I knew there was a reason I came on this tour). We saw Parrot's kitchen (a smaller version) and then exited into Parrot Cay. We were told some more interesting facts and I asked the officer what they do with all the leftover food. He said that as long as the are 11 miles out the grind it up and make it into a paste type solution and dump it overboard for all the little fishies to eat. I found this interesting and he also said that this is the practice all over the world. Wow you can learn something new, even on a
Disney cruise. It was definately a fun and informative tour.
I then went back to the room and got the kids and took them to the club. They had rehearsal for the kid's club graduation ceremony and then Mary and I went over to the Final Bingo game of the week. Mary wanted to play and I would head to another beer tasting seminar while she did. Mary bought the 4 or 5 game package with the extra card for the last one. She said it was very hectic playing, especially that last game with the two cards to look after. But, she was in it to the end. She had to stand up because she only had one number left. But, alas, an 11 year old ended up winning. I think Mary said the prize was something like 4K-5K. Mary said if she had won I would have been sent right up to the cruise desk and ordered to book another one with the winnings.
The beer tasting , of course, was fabulous. There was many more people here on this day than Monday. It was probably because it was in the Navigator today. I was the only one double dipping though so I was proud about that. We had some really good beer today. I especially liked the Guinness. I am a huge Guinness fan (must be the fact that I am 100% Irish)and was proud to see it included. I had to order myself a pint as the small glass was not good enough. The seminar ended and I immediately went down to the theater to look for Mary and get ready for the graduation ceremony. Excpet, I forgot one thing...I did not know where I should be meeting Mary. We did not talk about it.
When I got to the theater I saw many kids lined up and went to the row Mary was playing the game but no Mary. I raced upstairs but no Mary. I went back down to the theater and finally Mary yelled out to me, she had moved to a middle row. Phewww..but wait, what no camera or video recorder. So, Tim had to hoof it back upstairs and get them and I made it back just in time as the kids started to head in. The ceremony was very fun and the kids were really excited about being on stage with Minnie and Mickey. Although, I could no catch them with the camera Mary was able to find them with the recorder. Here are some of the shots we took from the Celebrate the Journey ceremony.
Afterwards, Mary went to the room to get our semi-formal wear ready and I headed up to the club to collect my two little graduates. On the way back up to the room they just kept talking about how they were with Minnie and Mickey today on stage. We got dressed and headed up to Animators.
Dinner as always was very tasty and we al ate too much, especially me. This restaurant is very nice and the food is great but... I felt a little over dressed. we spent both fomal nights in this restaurant and I feel it is the least formal of the three. I don't know just a feeling but we enjoyed the restaurant anyway. The walls stayed the way they are as the second night there is no miraculous change over.
So we again headed up to our room, put on some comfy clothes and headed to do some shopping. We figured tonight would be as good a day to do that. We did not want to be bogged down tomorrow when everyone else is doing it. I headed up to Shutters and purchased some photos. I got a copy of one also so I was told to come back on Friday to collect it. I also purchased a 2-d crystal with our formal picture in it. I was told to come back Saturday morning before we left to get it. I met everyone else up and we picked out some souvenirs that we would buy after the show.
Tonight's show was Disney Dreams. I think this was the best show all week. It was acted perfectly and the songs were great. I think we all agreed that the shows on this ship are not to be missed. We were very sad that we only had one more left and wished we could go back a few days so we could see them all again.
So, we spent the rest of the night picking up and buying our souvenirs and relaxing. We knew we were going to have an early day so we headed upstairs sat down by the pool and had some ice cream. The kids were a little hungry so they also had a slice of pizza. We hung around and enjoyed quiet family time and then headed back up to the room to watch some TV and go to sleep.
Next...Castaway Cay
Loving your trip report!
At first I thought it was another small cruise ship - one of those for 50 people or so, but after we looked closer, we decided it was a private boat.
) of wine. The kids did miss the parade around the restaurant but I am sure they were having a great deal of fun anyway.
so i'm glad you enjoyed it!! 
I would have loved to have seen that! We left after the fireworks were over.
One was the lady who was lying in the middle of the dancing crowd on her chaise lounger (with a sleeping child on her lap). I understand wanting to stake out good territory, but maybe the lounge chairs should be up on Deck 10 or in the back of the crowd, not front and center! Everyone is trying to cha-cha, hustle, whatever and we're running into her chair!
The other was a lady who came barreling through in her motorized scooter - again, right into the middle of those dancing! 
I'm all for access for everyone, but again, if you're not 
you should step back a bit.
I know not very Disney-like but hey, I am from New Yawk.
