Chapter 8 – Castaway Cay
I was starting to think there was something wrong with me. Yet again I woke up early and went walking. Voluntarily. Happily even. Something is not right! Back in the room I showered and dressed. DH was already ready so we were off to Deck 3. We had told the grandpas how good the breakfast at Lumiere’s was and had made plans to meet them there at 8:00 when it opened. The wife of our friend family also joined us there. Her DH and DD were still sleeping, as were our kids.
We were seated at a table next to one of the portholes and I hoped we’d get to see our approach to Castaway Cay near the end of our meal. This morning I tried what DH had had the day before…Mrs. Potts’ Morning. It was very, very good…but not as good as the Beast’s Tower from the morning before. I don’t remember what everyone else had but I do remember they enjoyed it. DF-I-L wanted a more basic breakfast than what was on the menu and was able to order eggs and bacon with no problem. I really like this new menu at Lumiere's. It is a nice alternative to Topsiders, especially on mornings where you want to take a slower pace.
During breakfast Luis came over to the table. I hadn’t realized he was working at Lumiere's that morning or we would have requested to sit in his section. Anyway, he asked if DD had passed on his message to us and I explained to him that I hadn’t seen her after dinner and that she was currently unconscious. He laughed and explained that we needed to see our head server to let him know what dining rotation we wanted the following week. I promised that we would do that at dinner that night but that we definitely wanted to continue with both him and Graham. He seemed pleased and then asked us what we'd be doing the next day as he had the afternoon off and we could go explore Port Canaveral together. Had we been more sure of what the day would bring we would have taken him up on his offer. Since we didn't know how long everything would take and we didn't want him to waste his precious day off waiting for us we passed. In retrospect I wish we'd done it. I think it would have been a lot of fun to spend the afternoon with him "off the clock".
Near the end of breakfast my wish was fulfilled. We could see Castaway Cay out of the porthole near our table. We also saw an amazing rainbow to go along with it. The neat thing was that the ship turned 180 degrees so everyone at the table got a great view of the island without having to leave their seat! How nice of them to do that just for us!
After breakfast we headed back to our staterooms to get ready for the island. Looking out our porthole I noticed that we were nearly finished docking and that…it was pouring! Oh no! That’s not good. I got the kids up anyway and they quickly dressed. (Quickly being a relative term in DD’s case.) I knew that DD wanted to spend her day on the Teen Beach but I also wanted to get a few photos of them together on the island, including one of them with Captain Jack Sparrow.
DH went ahead, as usual, to secure a spot on the beach and the kids and I were to follow a few minutes later. Well, as we left our stateroom an announcement came over the speakers. Minnie and Donald would not be available for photos on the island but would be in the Atrium instead. We headed there and quickly got the kids’ photos taken. By the time we were done the lines had tripled and I was glad we had gotten there early. The pictures just weren’t the same in the Atrium though, and I hoped to get them taken on the island the following week.
From there we called the grandpas to let the know that we were ready and would meet them in the Deck 1 Aft gangway. Our friends were headed to Serenity Bay while their DD was heading to the Teen Beach with ours. Once down in the gangway we saw that it was still pouring. DD decided to wait until later to disembark so I signed the waiver that let her do this without needing a parent present. She headed back to the stateroom to write out some postcards. DDad also decided to head back to the room to wait out the rain but DF-I-L, DS and I decided to press on. After all, DH was out there waiting for us!
Just at that moment a CM appeared with a large box of Mickey ponchos. What a savior! Sheathed in plastic, artfully decorated with my favorite mouse, we had our cards scanned and walked onto Castaway Cay. Most people seemed to have opted to wait the rain out on the ship and we were able to quickly grab some towels and be on our way. As we neared the back of the ship we saw a photographer huddled under an umbrella. I had her take DS’s photo, as I figured it would make a great shot for my scrapbook. How often do you see a 12yo bundled up in a poncho with the Magic in the background? Just as she was ready to take the picture another CM (one who was waiting for excursion participants) jumped into the shot. I made the comment that I would have to get that one as it was really cute.
I then chatted with the photographer for a minute, commending her on her photo-taking-in-the-rain skills. I realized that I had an extra poncho and asked her if she’d like it. She quickly accepted and I was happy that I had done my good deed for the day. We’d run into her many more times on the trip and she always mentioned that poncho!
Photo taken, we were on our way. We skipped the tram and walked to the family beach. We have always camped out in the same area and we were quickly able to find DH. He was alone in a sea of beach chairs and hammocks. It was still raining so we put our stuff under the umbrella but didn’t linger there for too long. After all, we were going to get wet as soon as we went in the water, right?
DS and I headed off to rent a couple of tubes and then spent the next 30 minutes or so floating in the beautiful and uncrowded water. It was amazing to experience the family beach with so few people on it. After our swim we headed back to the chairs while DS headed to the water jungle gym (which they closed due to low tide a short time later, much to his disappointment). It was still drizzling so I sat under the umbrella for a while to get dry. Here I had one of my favorite experiences of the trip. Sitting under that umbrella, the rain tap-tapping on it, nobody at all near us was one of the most peaceful moments I’ve ever had. It was fantastic!
Not long after the rain began to clear away and the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds. This, of course, brought the rest of the guests from the ship and they soon started filing onto the beach. DH and DS headed off for their Banana Boat ride and DF-I-L decided to go too.
They had an extra person with them when they returned. They had found my DDad so our group was now complete.
DS and I headed off to have lunch while the others decided to wait a bit. Cookie’s is DS’s favorite meal of the week and he couldn’t wait to get there. On our way we spent a few minutes watching the crab races. There was a crab named Caleb and we had 3 Calebs in our traveling party so we just had to watch! Caleb-the-crab was doing very well so we moved on to the barbecue. I had a hamburger, two ribs, some fruit salad and one of the very yummy chocolate chip cookies. DS had the same except he substituted a hot dog for the hamburger. He then went back to the fruit stand for some watermelon. Everything was absolutely delicious. For some reason the food on Castaway Cay always tastes better. It must have something to do with the sea air and sunshine. We knew that Graham was working at Cookie’s today but we didn’t run into him.
When we returned to our spot the guys went to lunch. I spent an hour or so swinging in the hammock doing absolutely nothing. It was heaven! In the early afternoon the grandpas headed back to the ship but we stayed a bit longer. DS and DH went off to find the game pavilion as DH had developed an affinity for the game of ping pong and he wanted to challenge his dad to a few games. I spent some more time in my hammock. Life was good.
Who is that peeking out from behind the pole?...
At some point I started thinking about how almost everyone else there was thinking about going home the next day and we still had another whole week. I knew that the following Friday I’d be feeling the same way that they did but, in the meantime, I was so grateful for being able to take this wonderful trip.
Stitch enjoys the island...
When the boys returned DS decided to challenge me to a game of ping pong so off we went to the game pavilion. DH said he would gather our stuff and head back to the ship and meet us there later. On our way to the game pavilion we saw DD and her group of friends. I couldn’t resist a loud “Hi, Honey!”, complete with vigorous wave. I firmly believe that it is every parents’ right and duty to (gently) embarrass their teen from time to time and I take that responsibility
very seriously! DD and her friends seemed to be heading back to the ship. She gave me a wave (it’s pretty hard to embarrass her, actually) and they went on their way.
I held my own in ping pong, although I think DS did beat me in the end. I had never been down to this part of the island before so it was neat to see. When we were done we walked back to the ship, taking in the sights and sounds along the way. DJ Mike was still spinning the tunes and “We’re All In This Together” from High School Musical came on just as we were walking by…much to DS’s displeasure. Well, as I said, I take my job
very seriously so I had to sing along as we walked. DS did his best to pretend we weren’t together but he came back to me once we were out of earshot of the music.
We made a stop at She Sells Sea Shells to browse through the offerings. I was thrilled to find T-shirts (in both men’s and women’s styles) with the “Finding Nemo” seagulls on them. Under the seagulls the word Mine was written seven or eight times. My kids absolutely love that part of the movie so the shirts were a must-have for us. DS also purchased a beach towel for me for Christmas but gave it to me right away (he’s a chip off the old block, for sure!). I was thrilled with it and told him I’d use it onboard. I love having a beach towel to wrap myself in after I shower so I planned to use it everyday for the rest of the trip.
We then walked back to the ship with the full knowledge that we’d be back again in a week. It definitely made leaving the island so much easier!
Some of the Castaway Cay holiday decorations...
CMs were at the pier handing out Christmas Cookies which was a lovely touch. I took a few pictures of DS in front of the holiday displays as it had been too wet and rainy to do that in the morning.
Note that stuck on smile...sigh...
We then headed back onto the ship. Actually I sent DS ahead and told him that when he got back to the room he should look out the window with DD and DH (if they were there) so I could take a picture from the dock. Well, I waited and waited but they never showed up. Turns out that they were standing there waving at me but I could see them because of the reflection on the window. Oh well, I took a picture of the window anyway.
Ours is the window with both ropes running across it...
I made my way back on ship and everybody was already in the room. We relaxed until it was time to get ready for dinner, watching (for about the millionth time that week) about 20 minutes of "Transformers". I noticed that Flori was in the hallway so I gave her her tip envelope and a Christmas tin of Hershey’s kisses that I had brought for each of the CMs in the tipped positions. I also took a tin to the room steward at the next station, Fernando. He had been so friendly and sweet during the week that it really made our cruise better. I wanted to thank him somehow and I was happy I’d brought along a couple extra tins.
Our meal tonight was back in Lumiere’s where we had started nearly a week ago. It was bittersweet for us as even though we were staying another week this was the last night with our friends and family. I found Gaspare and spoke to him about our rotation for the following week. The servers stay on a continuous rotation so Luis and Graham would be going from the LAPLAPL circuit to APLAPLA. To stay with them we’d have to go with the APLAPLA rotation as well. We weren't thrilled with the 5:30 dinner time but we agreed to this, as we really did want to stay with them. Gaspare pointed out Table #39, a 4-top that would be our dining home for the following week.
Sadly, we all ended up running out of dinner early tonight and we didn't get to see the final "show". DD was participating in the talent show at 7:15 and we didn’t want miss it. Luis was nice enough to bring our desserts out early, each with a cover and a fork, so we could take them with us to the performance. Several of DD’s Stack friends were there, which was very sweet and Anna Marie even came when she was finished with her dessert. DD did a great job and got a bag of goodies for participating. It included some stickers, a “Santa Clause” car air freshener and a beautiful “Enchanted” silver apple keychain. I though it was an odd selection for the little kids who participated but DD was happy as she will be starting to drive next year. (…sob…)
After the show the girls went to change and head to the Stack. The rest of us went to the Farewell show in the WDT. John Charles was one of the featured performers and he was, as usual, fantastic. We also saw Michael Harrison do his turn-a-kid-in-the-audience-into-a-puppet routine. No matter how many times I see it, it’s still funny!
After the show everyone headed back to their rooms to pack up. Even though we were staying we would be switching staterooms so we had to pack up too. We’d received a letter on our fish the day before, telling us the exact procedure for Saturday morning so we were all set. I’d also packed up most of our things before dinner so there wasn’t much to do. I also made a run to Shutters to pick up the photos from that morning. Jenny, the photographer, was manning the counter and when she saw the photo of DS and the CM she mentioned that she had had it printed up because she remembered that I had said I wanted to buy it. She said that usually they don't print the ones that CMs jump into. She also thanked me again for the poncho and said how much it had helped.
I had planned to go to the “Til We Meet Again” event in the Atrium but I never made it there. Instead we relaxed in the room and called it a night.
The seas tonight were very calm. It had been a perfectly calm cruise. Would our luck hold out the following week? I was hopeful...but I was sooooo wrong!
) so she could get right to the Stack. She said that getting there early on the first night was key to getting to know everyone. Without a friend along this weekend she wanted to make sure she got to know people early.
Well, ever since that night Graham had been bringing her Shirley Temples (something she ONLY drinks when we cruise) LOADED with cherries! This would continue for the rest of the trip.
) Finally they were down to just a few families that hadn’t won and they just started calling on them one-by-one. We were lucky enough to receive a great DVC beach towel that says “Membership is Magical”. Since I collect Beach Towels this was the perfect prize for us! We were warned to wash the bright blue towel before using it if we didn’t want to end up looking like a member of Blue Man Group! That advice was gladly accepted and heeded.
