jd99
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2001
- Messages
- 6,230
Friday: Castaway Cay
Cast: Me (Jeff), DW, DD8, DD2 1/2
I found myself waking up a little sad today. Yes, its Castaway Cay day for many the greatest day of the cruise. But for obsessive compulsive me, all I can think about is how its the last day of the cruise. And tomorrow we are back to reality. I am sure I count myself in the minority who wishes CC day was on Thursday followed by a Day at Sea before heading home. But I digress.
We awoke to a beautiful morning and we were not yet at CC. My wife and DDs saw us arrive at CC and said it was a sight to behold. Im not sure what I was doing. I didnt keep notes of my trip after Thursday so I am doing this all from memory.
We had a quick breakfast from Goofys while we waited for the signal to head ashore. Now, I am not one to wait on the gangplank as I believe we stand in enough lines on this cruise to not stand in one unnecessarily. Now I know that some people have their favorite spots on the family beach..or they want to be close to the snorkeling lagoon.. or in the first row from the water. Were not those people. Wed rather take our time a little bit, take the tram and then walk a bit until we find a spot to our liking with plenty of shade and nice views. Though we were in the next to back row, we were near Cookies, could hear the music loud and clear, had a view of the water and it was just great. Like we are in our chairs at all, anyway!
The water was definitely a bit icy today. MUCH colder than during our trip in August duh, I know that was a brilliant statement, but it still caught me by surprise. DD8 and I did swim but DW and DD2 1/2 mostly played in the sand and went into the water a little bit.
DD8 caught up with her friend Stacey as they were sitting just in front of us on the beach and so she got to play with her a lot. One of the things that amazes me about DCL is that of the 2,500 people on the ship, you always see the same folks over and over. And its not just people who sit by you at dinner or have cabins near you. We ran into some folks who we didnt know constantly. We saw Don and Kelly (from the DIS boards) all the time in fact they were coincidentally in Palo during both our brunch and dinner. And we ran into Stacey and her family on the island even though we didnt make any arrangements to sit close by or anything. It just happens. And that makes it fun!
DD8 and I did the banana boat ride in the morning and that was a lot of fun though I think my backside is still smarting from that ride! It was fun to be so closes to the Magic and the Pirate ship. I had a parasail scheduled for later in the day but for the second straight cruise, it was canceled due to weather. Not sure what the problem was I heard winds .but I have parasailed other places (including Aruba) where the wind was much stronger. Oh well. Maybe next year.
Lunch was very good here better than I remembered from the August cruise and it was just a relaxing day. On our cruise in August, we got hit with a bad storm mid-day and trapped inside the covered eating area for more than an hour. It was so nice to just have the whole day to hang out.
I also took the two girls (DD8 and her friend) out into the snorkeling lagoon but they got freaked out about halfway out to where the water was relatively clear and we ended up not getting out far enough to see anything. Maybe next year for that too!
All in all it was a fun day. We shopped a bit at the CC stores on the way out, sent postcards (2 of three NEVER arrived home, only the one to DD8s school made it) and hung out at the snowman/Christmas tree area until the gangplanks were not so crowded before heading back onboard.
Once onboard, we sat on the verandah and waved bye bye to the CC residents a week..just give me a week there. Ill even work! Then we cleaned up and got ready for out last night.
Not sure what happened in the hour or so between getting back onboard and the show (really I should have taken notes for today too) but we did head over to the theater for the farewell show. DD8 was hoping to see Stacey but Pat (her grandmother) told us she decided to stay in the club so we let DD8 go there too. We watched the show and I got a little misty. Rachel the cruise director put on her first decent performance of the cruise. It was the first time I found her to be interested and engaging with the audience the whole cruise maybe it was because we were nearly home. Ok back to the fun stuff. I took some amazing video of DD 2 1/2 watching the show with wonder in her eyes. Just used nightshot on the video camera and kept it on her through the final song and fireworks. She was enthralled.
Like crazy people we then went to get our pictures in Shutters with pretty much everyone else on the ship. DW and DD 2 1/2 got it done in amazingly quick fashion. What I want to know is that for those of you who cruise often, WHAT do you do with all these pictures? We dont even buy a lot but with cruising twice this year I find myself with a bunch of photos that need to be framed and hung. But where?
DD8 didnt want to leave the club for dinner so she stayed there most of the rest of the night nearly til closing time. Wouldnt even come out for the see ya real soon show in the atrium. We headed to dinner and had a nice meal and said so long to our wait staff and our table mates. DD 2 1/2 fell asleep at dinner after licking a Mickey bar so DW got her into the stroller then dropped her at Flounders so we could hang out a bit.
We headed to the atrium for the final farewell and I was so bummed the kids werent there. This was truly an opportunity to see and get photos with nearly every character. I watched a few people do just that and DD 2 1/2 would have loved it. It was a very nice show but I got misty again. I dont want to leave!
We then went to Diversions for the crew talent show and met up with a gang of DIS folks. It was great fun as we hadnt had the chance to do this on our last cruise.
Then it was off to pick up the girls, back to the cabin for our last night.
Cast: Me (Jeff), DW, DD8, DD2 1/2
I found myself waking up a little sad today. Yes, its Castaway Cay day for many the greatest day of the cruise. But for obsessive compulsive me, all I can think about is how its the last day of the cruise. And tomorrow we are back to reality. I am sure I count myself in the minority who wishes CC day was on Thursday followed by a Day at Sea before heading home. But I digress.
We awoke to a beautiful morning and we were not yet at CC. My wife and DDs saw us arrive at CC and said it was a sight to behold. Im not sure what I was doing. I didnt keep notes of my trip after Thursday so I am doing this all from memory.
We had a quick breakfast from Goofys while we waited for the signal to head ashore. Now, I am not one to wait on the gangplank as I believe we stand in enough lines on this cruise to not stand in one unnecessarily. Now I know that some people have their favorite spots on the family beach..or they want to be close to the snorkeling lagoon.. or in the first row from the water. Were not those people. Wed rather take our time a little bit, take the tram and then walk a bit until we find a spot to our liking with plenty of shade and nice views. Though we were in the next to back row, we were near Cookies, could hear the music loud and clear, had a view of the water and it was just great. Like we are in our chairs at all, anyway!
The water was definitely a bit icy today. MUCH colder than during our trip in August duh, I know that was a brilliant statement, but it still caught me by surprise. DD8 and I did swim but DW and DD2 1/2 mostly played in the sand and went into the water a little bit.
DD8 caught up with her friend Stacey as they were sitting just in front of us on the beach and so she got to play with her a lot. One of the things that amazes me about DCL is that of the 2,500 people on the ship, you always see the same folks over and over. And its not just people who sit by you at dinner or have cabins near you. We ran into some folks who we didnt know constantly. We saw Don and Kelly (from the DIS boards) all the time in fact they were coincidentally in Palo during both our brunch and dinner. And we ran into Stacey and her family on the island even though we didnt make any arrangements to sit close by or anything. It just happens. And that makes it fun!
DD8 and I did the banana boat ride in the morning and that was a lot of fun though I think my backside is still smarting from that ride! It was fun to be so closes to the Magic and the Pirate ship. I had a parasail scheduled for later in the day but for the second straight cruise, it was canceled due to weather. Not sure what the problem was I heard winds .but I have parasailed other places (including Aruba) where the wind was much stronger. Oh well. Maybe next year.
Lunch was very good here better than I remembered from the August cruise and it was just a relaxing day. On our cruise in August, we got hit with a bad storm mid-day and trapped inside the covered eating area for more than an hour. It was so nice to just have the whole day to hang out.
I also took the two girls (DD8 and her friend) out into the snorkeling lagoon but they got freaked out about halfway out to where the water was relatively clear and we ended up not getting out far enough to see anything. Maybe next year for that too!
All in all it was a fun day. We shopped a bit at the CC stores on the way out, sent postcards (2 of three NEVER arrived home, only the one to DD8s school made it) and hung out at the snowman/Christmas tree area until the gangplanks were not so crowded before heading back onboard.
Once onboard, we sat on the verandah and waved bye bye to the CC residents a week..just give me a week there. Ill even work! Then we cleaned up and got ready for out last night.
Not sure what happened in the hour or so between getting back onboard and the show (really I should have taken notes for today too) but we did head over to the theater for the farewell show. DD8 was hoping to see Stacey but Pat (her grandmother) told us she decided to stay in the club so we let DD8 go there too. We watched the show and I got a little misty. Rachel the cruise director put on her first decent performance of the cruise. It was the first time I found her to be interested and engaging with the audience the whole cruise maybe it was because we were nearly home. Ok back to the fun stuff. I took some amazing video of DD 2 1/2 watching the show with wonder in her eyes. Just used nightshot on the video camera and kept it on her through the final song and fireworks. She was enthralled.
Like crazy people we then went to get our pictures in Shutters with pretty much everyone else on the ship. DW and DD 2 1/2 got it done in amazingly quick fashion. What I want to know is that for those of you who cruise often, WHAT do you do with all these pictures? We dont even buy a lot but with cruising twice this year I find myself with a bunch of photos that need to be framed and hung. But where?
DD8 didnt want to leave the club for dinner so she stayed there most of the rest of the night nearly til closing time. Wouldnt even come out for the see ya real soon show in the atrium. We headed to dinner and had a nice meal and said so long to our wait staff and our table mates. DD 2 1/2 fell asleep at dinner after licking a Mickey bar so DW got her into the stroller then dropped her at Flounders so we could hang out a bit.
We headed to the atrium for the final farewell and I was so bummed the kids werent there. This was truly an opportunity to see and get photos with nearly every character. I watched a few people do just that and DD 2 1/2 would have loved it. It was a very nice show but I got misty again. I dont want to leave!
We then went to Diversions for the crew talent show and met up with a gang of DIS folks. It was great fun as we hadnt had the chance to do this on our last cruise.
Then it was off to pick up the girls, back to the cabin for our last night.
thanks so much for sharing.
Southern Elegance. 
We are very excited.
Skylar (11) 
, Christian (10) 
