Friday 4th August– Castaway Cay
I want to start by apologising for the fact that it has taken nearly 3 months to complete this report and also to thank you all for the lovely comments I received about it.

However before I start this day in earnest, I feel it important to explain a little bit about what happened last year (2005) when I last visited CC. Two of my discs in my spine ruptured (at the gift shop actually) which left me with excruciating pain and no leg movement.

I was taken by a cm in his car back to the ship and I spent the rest of my time in the USA on my back. It has taken a year of weekly physio, acupuncture and hydrotherapy to get me mobile again. Serenity Bay is my most favourite place on earth and was desperate to get back there and enjoy myself. I guess that is why this cruise meant so much to me

… Anyway back to the report!
Earlier on in the cruise we thought it would be a good idea to have our champagne breakfast, on the Castaway Cay day and did not really know what to sample so we ticked all the boxes. We requested 7:30am. AT 7:20 our phone went and it was the kitchen asking us how we wanted our eggs cooking (nice touch) and telling us that our breakfast would be there @ 7:30. Sure enough on the dot it was there. However we were amazed at the amount of food that was wheeled in, 3 huge trays.
This is just one of the trays!!
(I guess we kinda went over board

) But it was such a nice way to start our last day. We put the OJ and pastries in the little room fridge for later and tucked in! After the fab breakfast we got our bag for the day. Dave had his snorkelling gear, and I had my ipod and book. We got off the ship early, ok we were one of the first off and we headed upto the tram stop for Serenity Bay. It felt quite emotional walking past the gift shop and Dave did not let me go anywhere near it!
This holiday was defiantly a series of firsts and you’ve guessed it we were on the first tram round to Serenity Bay. It was deserted when we got there just look!
We got a perfect spot and Dave loved his hammock, it was so good.
We hadn’t been there 5 mins and Dave set off to snorkel – he disappeared for around 20 mins (Quite far out ) and came back saying all the fish must still be in bed , well it was only 9:20am! I decided to take my chair to the waters edge and I was amazed at all the fish that swam round my feet!
Flo and her family joined us around 9:30, and while the men played in the water we sampled the island cocktails! (YUM)
This is me on my chair and in the distance is Flo (taken by Dave)
This was the most perfect day, at 11:30 ish Flo and I went to sample the buffet lunch. Wow it was good, I had lobster and a burger, but there were lots of other choices – steak, chicken, and fish along with different salads. The lobster was so yummy and there was no cue you just walked straight up to the grill and made your choice. There were also plenty of tables and CM’s who were there to help. Flo and I did think of the others who were at the family beach.
These are some of Dave’s snorkelling shots!
After lunch we stayed at Serenity Bay till about 2pm and then we headed back to the ship. We stopped off at the gift shop (Dave let me this time) and I bought a hooded top and then we mailed a postcard to my mam @ the post office (Incidentally it took 6 weeks to arrive back home)
Once back on board we headed back up to our room and crashed out.
The rest of the night passed, but I was so thrilled with Serenity Bay it was a blur! He are a few photos and comments-
We had to pack!!!
At dinner the serves paraded ‘Baked Alaska’,
I went up to deck 4 to see the characters say goodbye @ 10pm – and promptly cried my eyes out!!!
We went to bed and set our alarm clock for 5:30am –
yes 5:30!!!