Today is Friday, January 16th. A very bittersweet day. It is the best of times, and the worst of times. Castaway Cay and packing, knowing it is almost over.
I had tossed and turned all night, sore throat, and anticipating this last day with hope for a good day at Castaway Cay and regret, knowing the end was coming. I get constant sinus infections and had quit using my prescription spray during the week, thinking that with the tropical air I was safe. I usually have a sinus infection when we go to warm places in the winter, and get cured on the trip. Now I was kicking myself. I felt lousy, which made me blue, too. But we were all up with room service at dawn, looking and looking for signs of the island. Finally we see it! We watched the ship dock. It looked like it was going to be an incredible day, no clouds anywhere and calm ocean. We had made all sorts of contingency plans, expecting to be either unable to dock or if we did dock, how to cope with cold weather. Our major love on any tropical trip is the snorkeling. We were surprised at how decent the snorkeling was here, before. This is all a man-made lagoon, lacking old coral reefs or any of the structures that would attract interesting fish. But the company has made a decent go of it, sinking large amphora, gold bricks and other junk, such as an old Nautilus from the ride (how I miss it) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.. This has attracted fish, some fair sized. We looked forward to snorkeling here again, but were trying not to count on it, especially after reading about the lousy luck of Decembers cruises.
We were too early at the aft gangway, chomping at the bit; saw a bride in her gown in the gangway lobby. We stayed on the elevator, and then went back down to Parrot Cay to get something to eat after noting nightmare-sized crowds waiting to get into Topsiders. This turned out to work well. The crowds seemed to have avoided Parrot Cay, thinking it might take too long, I guess. We had a nice meal. Earl Grey here! Adina was serving clear on the other side of the room, but she kept coming over. She got Gma her requests from the buffet, slipped her some pancakes, cut them up for her. She would run back and serve her one table, then come back to do more nice things for us, even though we were not her station. She brought big bowls of fresh berries for Whistler, Gma and me, as she had at the Character Breakfast. Gma couldnt eat hers, so I ate those, too. Whistler was also full, so then I ate his. We hung out so long that the gangway had been open for a while by the time we returned. I was glad we missed that mob scene exit.
Off the ship, it was a bit chilly, but very doable for January. We walked all the way, stopping for towels and stamps, pushing Gma in her own wheelchair. We had used one of the sand wheelchairs last time and found it more of a hindrance than a help, it was huge, bulky, the umbrella stuck in the pushers face and was a booger to turn. This time we decided to stay on the paved path, then come in at a 90 degree angle, since Gma does walk fine, if assisted, for short stretches. We found a good spot near the restrooms, not too far past the barbeque. And directly up from the dive platform, our kids stated goal. On the way we managed to drop and break our new underwater camera, the only camera we had brought off the ship. Terrific. We had hated the type of pictures you get with a disposable, so we had finally broken down and bought the real thing for this trip. We didnt even seem to care too much, we were finally here at Castaway Cay!
The beach was not terribly crowded, and even though the ship had 2700 passengers, there were still places to be had through-out the day. In other words, dont rush if you are willing to walk a bit farther. It seemed most of the hammocks were gone, not just full, but gone. Maybe too much of a private real estate problem? Gma settled under the shade of the umbrella and Rack stretched out in the sun to deal with the effects of last nights partying. The kids went straight for the water, I went in briefly and thought, O.K., I can do this, I wont necessarily enjoy it, but I can do it. Peter stayed in the shallows, i.e., the water does not hit the family jewels, and you dont howl in anguish, to keep an eye on the kids. It was a-snorkel-or kids-in-the-water kind of day. Keep moving and it wont kill you. Few sensible adults spent extended periods in the water. The kids had their snorkels on and one of the guards reminded us that if you wear a snorkel, you have to wear a flotation vest. I walked back down the beach to fetch enough. I also went to She Sells Sea Shells and tried to buy an underwater camera, they were already out by 9:30, so just bought a regular one so we would have some pictures. Had to get a couple t-shirts for the kids and a pin, too. They volunteered to transport these back to the ship for me.
When I returned I encouraged everyone to go for a snorkel. Rack, kids Peter and I suited up and headed out from our spot across the lagoon, we swam and ducked under the roped off snorkel area about half-way out. We followed the yellow buoys. Saw the standard kind of snorkel fish, yellow jack, a few golden tang and wrasse and even a jelly, took about an hour. We were headed for the red buoys when Whistler decided he had had enough, he said he was just too cold. I ended up pretty much towing him all the way in. We went straight in on the snorkeling section, it was a long swim dragging a seven year old and with an out of shape kick that cramped my middle left toe. We got back to the shore, took off our gear and walked back to our spot with Gma. I dried off Whistler and he stretched out in the sun on one of the loungers, still shivering a bit. I looked at my lovely baby, hardly a baby at all, now, and I kept thinking about sweet Nate, enjoying the warmth of Castaway Cay, warming his little body. I felt Nate was there with us, too, what better place for his spirit to be, and that we were enriched by his presence.
I could have gone a lot further snorkeling, Ill put up with just about anything to see that new fish I have never seen, but I empathized with Whistler. As long as you could get some warming from the sun, the water was O.K. But a January day in the water at Castaway Cay would be miserable without sun, the water is just a little too cold. We had planned to do lots of exploring, make kites and beach walk if the weather had been cold. We had even brought ponchos and umbrellas along to walk the island in the rain, if necessary.
Everyone else returned eventually, also pretty chilled, no spottings of new fish for our lifetime lists. They had finally found Mickey, though. Once everyone was dried off we headed over to lunch, soon after they opened. The barbeque is O.K., loved the coleslaw. We all ate way too much, post cold-snorkeling-hunger. The kids loved the cookie dough ice cream. We returned to our spot for a bit, and then walked the paths. Went over to the Heads Up Bar (now I get it!) and watched a bunch of needle fish swimming near the surface. We stopped at the game room and everyone played a few rounds of foosball and monster sized Connect Four. The kids clubs showed up, so we moved on. We walked the path to the airstrip, inspected the plane and watched the hummingbirds darting in and out of the hibiscus. We tried to convince the kids to walk further, but they were just too tired. We had bicycled the whole path last time and wanted to walk to the end, but no luck this time. Back to the beach. We stood in the shallows, the kids swam and jumped off the ropes and I made out a huge pile of postcards. Alejandro had given me extra ship stationary, I made a cover letter for each of the kids and stuck two stamps on each. I had mailed letters to the kids last time, but had put postcard amounts on (fifty-five cents!) and they never arrived. I noted the time, getting kind of late. Rack and Gma returned to the ship to pack. If I had been thinking I would have given them the mail, but too late. I remembered the post office closed at 4:00, so I walked all the way back to the post office and made it in time. Then I walked all the way back trust me a long way when you are hurrying, bagging a couple two-fer ubiquitous-rum-punch-thingies for Peter and I from the lovely-Romanian-with-the-green-eyes. We pulled the kids from the water and gathered our mess. There were a few groups left on the beach, all out of the water at 4:00, indulging in rum punch. We bid a fond good-bye to the water and trekked back to the ship with the last few stragglers, nearly 4:30 now. We forced ourselves to reboard, everyone getting very sad.
Back on board we got cleaned up and watched the ship sail from our verandah. We did not do many of the deck parties, our kids have grown out of the need to see the characters and the sound level is not what we want when saying sad good-byes to any of these lovely places. We had mostly hung out on deck four for the sail-ways on the previous cruise, when we did not have the verandah.
There had been a CM looking for a mom along the beach with a mid-aged kid, when I was going to and from the post office, radioing back to the ship to make sure she was not on board. I worried that he could not find his Mom, but finally did not see them reboard, hoping they had beaten us back and everything was O.K. But I will wonder for a long time. Our verandah was on the side away from the dock, we had backed in. We didnt see anyone waving good-bye from the beach, just one lone life-guard running a jet boat around the lagoon. We pulled out and lingered a bit on our verandah, noted a vehicle roving on the paths. Castaway Cay was now almost deserted, inhabited only by the lucky caretakers. Sigh.
We madly threw dirty clothes into the suitcase, getting most of the mess off the beds, and clearing the closets and drawers, then went to a final dinner. We had charged the tips yesterday, the standard amount, then slipped extra cash into the envelopes for Adina, Anton and Alejandro. I hate this part, I always worry that we have not tipped enough. Adina, especially, deserved twice what we could afford. I would like to just be able to leave the money behind and have them see it after we have left. Adina seemed flustered when she saw our envelopes in hand; I bet they really hate this part, too. She had said the most wonderful thing to us early in the week. She said that her tables this week had made it easy to come to work, that she had really enjoyed having us. She was nearing her off-the ship rest before her next contract, had just been through the Christmas rush, and must have been exhausted. Some weeks, she said, were very hard, especially when they had difficult tables. But this cruise she was happy to get up each morning. She also said that everyone had to get up even earlier for the next week when the Jim Belushi program was on board, and that they would be in her rotation. The servers didnt know if they should be excited or should be dreading it
Tonights menu was the Best of. One last bottle of wine, the Chateauneuf. I had the artichoke dip, ever other adult went for the Seafood. Then I had the salad with watercress dressing, I love watercress. Not quite the same as fresh watercress, but good. I swiped an artichoke chip and part of the bacon wrapped date off Peters salad, ummm interesting combo. The kids had the chicken tenderloins from the adult appetizer list, one of the few times, other than salad, they ventured off the pasta-pizza kids menus, why I rarely bothered to record or report their meals. Whistler has entered the stage, like his older brother, where he wont try much new. He had been much more adventurous before (his favorite food is still pasta with my home-made basil pesto, though). I didnt push this at any meal, though, I figured it was their vacation, too, and we could have food fights back at home. Main dish for me was the red snapper, yummy. Peter and Rack had the seafood pasta, Gma skipping to the dessert. The pasta was loaded with sea food, and Adina had been telling Peter about it for several nights, he kept waffling over the pastas every night, and loves sea food. This is the one, as per Adinas advice, to wait for if you are a pasta and seafood lover, too. This was probably one of the most adventurous dishes. White and black (squid ink) pasta, lobster, clams, shrimp and scallops. The guys loved it. Dessert was just about everything on the menu, and the kids finally were hungry enough to eat a Mickey bar. Then, Adina and Anton brought out two celebration cakes. I had forgotten all about this. When I called DCL to enquire about our table location, the CM had asked if we were celebrating any special occasions. I said we had missed everyones birthdays, Peter and my 50th had come and gone and we had done nothing special. On our first cruise, Rack had turned 22 the day before we left, and I had forgotten to request the special cakes. Adina and Anton had brought his on the first night, and we had sung to him. Now it was Peters and my turn. The only problem was, we were all stuffed. We got the cakes wrapped to carry out. Everyone was pretty teary, the kids quite upset, saying almost good-bye to them. Then the crunch, we handed them their envelopes, gave Adina the one for MacLean, who had not surfaced during the meal (must have been putting out fires in the galley.) Assured them they did not need to worry about excellent ratings, the only time they even mentioned how important it was to fill out the survey. I finally felt comfortable pumping them a bit more about their future plans and hopes. These are both well educated, talented people who come from countries where there is not much chance for them to stretch their wings. I wish them the best. Maybe lots of kids for Adina, since she obviously loves them and knows how to spoil them rotten, success for her and her (very cute) brother (also a server on the Magic) and a nice career, reunion with his family for Anton and future success at what he would really like to do. Zouhair even dropped by to say goodbye, what a very nice man, someone lucky should snap him up. We fled, pretty choked up.
We did one last trip to the Treasure Ketch, where we bought a pair of white Caribbean topaz earrings for Peter to tuck away for me for Valentines day, and I bought a couple of pins for the kids and us, one of the DCL logo for 2004, edition of 750, one of Tink with a Disney Dreams title and two of the door of the Walter E. Disney Suite door, edition of 1,000, opening to revel Mickey. I was hoping for a Roy Suite, in honor of his sons recent valiant fight, but it was not yet available. We are not traders, but I hope these things will be valuable to the kids someday. This shopping was all in honor of, miracle of miracles, the pager charge NOT showing up on our bill; bless you Elizabeth or Sharon or Shea or whoever the kind soul was that made this happen. Then a bunch of running around to return the pager, and try to get things we had scattered about the ship, a signed pillowcase for Whistler and a signed Captain Tom ornament for us, which could not be located, then. Shutters to pick up our portraits, and something else but I couldnt remember what it was.
We went to the Farewell Variety show. The performers were Gary DeLena and juggler Max Winfrey. Mr. Winfrey had not appeared in Rockin Bar D. He was very funny, faking out his audience assistants. Kind of strange, I figured he must have boarded the ship late, along with the reels of Teachers Pet, which was also Prem-Earing tonight (and had been shown in the afternoon, too), but only at 10:30 P.M. Where did the film and the man come from, did they come over from Abaco with the excursion operators? One of the mysteries of this cruise which will probably remain so. We thought that the WWTBAM and the film schedule and the Rockin Bar D acts were pretty strangely scheduled the second half of the trip.
This show could use a bit of updating otherwise, though. At least some new costumes for the dancers and singers. I think most of our fellow cruisers must have agreed. The last cruise it was SRO and this time only half full. Tried to wake a sleeping Whistler for the finale, wondering what his brain would register. He remembers the Beauty and the Beast show at MGM from his toddler days as that show where they blow up the performers at the end and they turn into pigeons. Maybe he will remember this better. At least this trip he saw the beginning of most of the night shows, he had slept in the cabin for all of them on the last cruise.
Back to the cabin, put Whistler in his prized top bunk for the last time. Rack took Gameboy for one last precious night swim. Peter and I scraped the last detritus from the counter tops into the bulging corners of the suitcases and we chucked them into the hall. But only after one last check to make sure there was underwear and clothes for tomorrow so we would not have to appear at breakfast in our jammies. Peter went to check Guest Services again to see if the ornament had been found, no luck. Rack and Gameboy returned, we all crashed, hard, and I was only vaguely aware when the phone rang after 11:00. About 4:00A.M., I awoke, realizing the last forgotten errand was to get the Castaway Cay purchases. Tossed and turned until the last Mickey wake up call at 6:00. Turned out that the 11:00 call had been about finding the ornament, which Peter then ran down to get, still unsigned. He then tossed and turned for a long time afterward.
I know the last day has to be like this, Castaway Cay is close to Florida and St. Thomas, isnt. That it is a long haul back from the Eastern Caribbean. But how I wish the day at Castaway Cay does not have to end in this rush. Everyone is tired from the beach and there are all the normal activities you do not want to miss, this one, last, bittersweet time. Plus packing in a short time what took weeks to carefully press and accumulate before the trip and doing all the last minute chores. If there were some arrangement of islands that could make a sea day after Castaway Cay, or at least give you a morning to pack and not arise before dawn on the last day. I almost liked the method of having to wait in the common areas for an hour or two, reading in the sun, on a long ago NCL cruise, better. The early seating is great if you have small kids but really brutal the last day.
Coming .The end, at least of the cruise.
Tink
I had tossed and turned all night, sore throat, and anticipating this last day with hope for a good day at Castaway Cay and regret, knowing the end was coming. I get constant sinus infections and had quit using my prescription spray during the week, thinking that with the tropical air I was safe. I usually have a sinus infection when we go to warm places in the winter, and get cured on the trip. Now I was kicking myself. I felt lousy, which made me blue, too. But we were all up with room service at dawn, looking and looking for signs of the island. Finally we see it! We watched the ship dock. It looked like it was going to be an incredible day, no clouds anywhere and calm ocean. We had made all sorts of contingency plans, expecting to be either unable to dock or if we did dock, how to cope with cold weather. Our major love on any tropical trip is the snorkeling. We were surprised at how decent the snorkeling was here, before. This is all a man-made lagoon, lacking old coral reefs or any of the structures that would attract interesting fish. But the company has made a decent go of it, sinking large amphora, gold bricks and other junk, such as an old Nautilus from the ride (how I miss it) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.. This has attracted fish, some fair sized. We looked forward to snorkeling here again, but were trying not to count on it, especially after reading about the lousy luck of Decembers cruises.
We were too early at the aft gangway, chomping at the bit; saw a bride in her gown in the gangway lobby. We stayed on the elevator, and then went back down to Parrot Cay to get something to eat after noting nightmare-sized crowds waiting to get into Topsiders. This turned out to work well. The crowds seemed to have avoided Parrot Cay, thinking it might take too long, I guess. We had a nice meal. Earl Grey here! Adina was serving clear on the other side of the room, but she kept coming over. She got Gma her requests from the buffet, slipped her some pancakes, cut them up for her. She would run back and serve her one table, then come back to do more nice things for us, even though we were not her station. She brought big bowls of fresh berries for Whistler, Gma and me, as she had at the Character Breakfast. Gma couldnt eat hers, so I ate those, too. Whistler was also full, so then I ate his. We hung out so long that the gangway had been open for a while by the time we returned. I was glad we missed that mob scene exit.
Off the ship, it was a bit chilly, but very doable for January. We walked all the way, stopping for towels and stamps, pushing Gma in her own wheelchair. We had used one of the sand wheelchairs last time and found it more of a hindrance than a help, it was huge, bulky, the umbrella stuck in the pushers face and was a booger to turn. This time we decided to stay on the paved path, then come in at a 90 degree angle, since Gma does walk fine, if assisted, for short stretches. We found a good spot near the restrooms, not too far past the barbeque. And directly up from the dive platform, our kids stated goal. On the way we managed to drop and break our new underwater camera, the only camera we had brought off the ship. Terrific. We had hated the type of pictures you get with a disposable, so we had finally broken down and bought the real thing for this trip. We didnt even seem to care too much, we were finally here at Castaway Cay!
The beach was not terribly crowded, and even though the ship had 2700 passengers, there were still places to be had through-out the day. In other words, dont rush if you are willing to walk a bit farther. It seemed most of the hammocks were gone, not just full, but gone. Maybe too much of a private real estate problem? Gma settled under the shade of the umbrella and Rack stretched out in the sun to deal with the effects of last nights partying. The kids went straight for the water, I went in briefly and thought, O.K., I can do this, I wont necessarily enjoy it, but I can do it. Peter stayed in the shallows, i.e., the water does not hit the family jewels, and you dont howl in anguish, to keep an eye on the kids. It was a-snorkel-or kids-in-the-water kind of day. Keep moving and it wont kill you. Few sensible adults spent extended periods in the water. The kids had their snorkels on and one of the guards reminded us that if you wear a snorkel, you have to wear a flotation vest. I walked back down the beach to fetch enough. I also went to She Sells Sea Shells and tried to buy an underwater camera, they were already out by 9:30, so just bought a regular one so we would have some pictures. Had to get a couple t-shirts for the kids and a pin, too. They volunteered to transport these back to the ship for me.
When I returned I encouraged everyone to go for a snorkel. Rack, kids Peter and I suited up and headed out from our spot across the lagoon, we swam and ducked under the roped off snorkel area about half-way out. We followed the yellow buoys. Saw the standard kind of snorkel fish, yellow jack, a few golden tang and wrasse and even a jelly, took about an hour. We were headed for the red buoys when Whistler decided he had had enough, he said he was just too cold. I ended up pretty much towing him all the way in. We went straight in on the snorkeling section, it was a long swim dragging a seven year old and with an out of shape kick that cramped my middle left toe. We got back to the shore, took off our gear and walked back to our spot with Gma. I dried off Whistler and he stretched out in the sun on one of the loungers, still shivering a bit. I looked at my lovely baby, hardly a baby at all, now, and I kept thinking about sweet Nate, enjoying the warmth of Castaway Cay, warming his little body. I felt Nate was there with us, too, what better place for his spirit to be, and that we were enriched by his presence.
I could have gone a lot further snorkeling, Ill put up with just about anything to see that new fish I have never seen, but I empathized with Whistler. As long as you could get some warming from the sun, the water was O.K. But a January day in the water at Castaway Cay would be miserable without sun, the water is just a little too cold. We had planned to do lots of exploring, make kites and beach walk if the weather had been cold. We had even brought ponchos and umbrellas along to walk the island in the rain, if necessary.
Everyone else returned eventually, also pretty chilled, no spottings of new fish for our lifetime lists. They had finally found Mickey, though. Once everyone was dried off we headed over to lunch, soon after they opened. The barbeque is O.K., loved the coleslaw. We all ate way too much, post cold-snorkeling-hunger. The kids loved the cookie dough ice cream. We returned to our spot for a bit, and then walked the paths. Went over to the Heads Up Bar (now I get it!) and watched a bunch of needle fish swimming near the surface. We stopped at the game room and everyone played a few rounds of foosball and monster sized Connect Four. The kids clubs showed up, so we moved on. We walked the path to the airstrip, inspected the plane and watched the hummingbirds darting in and out of the hibiscus. We tried to convince the kids to walk further, but they were just too tired. We had bicycled the whole path last time and wanted to walk to the end, but no luck this time. Back to the beach. We stood in the shallows, the kids swam and jumped off the ropes and I made out a huge pile of postcards. Alejandro had given me extra ship stationary, I made a cover letter for each of the kids and stuck two stamps on each. I had mailed letters to the kids last time, but had put postcard amounts on (fifty-five cents!) and they never arrived. I noted the time, getting kind of late. Rack and Gma returned to the ship to pack. If I had been thinking I would have given them the mail, but too late. I remembered the post office closed at 4:00, so I walked all the way back to the post office and made it in time. Then I walked all the way back trust me a long way when you are hurrying, bagging a couple two-fer ubiquitous-rum-punch-thingies for Peter and I from the lovely-Romanian-with-the-green-eyes. We pulled the kids from the water and gathered our mess. There were a few groups left on the beach, all out of the water at 4:00, indulging in rum punch. We bid a fond good-bye to the water and trekked back to the ship with the last few stragglers, nearly 4:30 now. We forced ourselves to reboard, everyone getting very sad.
Back on board we got cleaned up and watched the ship sail from our verandah. We did not do many of the deck parties, our kids have grown out of the need to see the characters and the sound level is not what we want when saying sad good-byes to any of these lovely places. We had mostly hung out on deck four for the sail-ways on the previous cruise, when we did not have the verandah.
There had been a CM looking for a mom along the beach with a mid-aged kid, when I was going to and from the post office, radioing back to the ship to make sure she was not on board. I worried that he could not find his Mom, but finally did not see them reboard, hoping they had beaten us back and everything was O.K. But I will wonder for a long time. Our verandah was on the side away from the dock, we had backed in. We didnt see anyone waving good-bye from the beach, just one lone life-guard running a jet boat around the lagoon. We pulled out and lingered a bit on our verandah, noted a vehicle roving on the paths. Castaway Cay was now almost deserted, inhabited only by the lucky caretakers. Sigh.
We madly threw dirty clothes into the suitcase, getting most of the mess off the beds, and clearing the closets and drawers, then went to a final dinner. We had charged the tips yesterday, the standard amount, then slipped extra cash into the envelopes for Adina, Anton and Alejandro. I hate this part, I always worry that we have not tipped enough. Adina, especially, deserved twice what we could afford. I would like to just be able to leave the money behind and have them see it after we have left. Adina seemed flustered when she saw our envelopes in hand; I bet they really hate this part, too. She had said the most wonderful thing to us early in the week. She said that her tables this week had made it easy to come to work, that she had really enjoyed having us. She was nearing her off-the ship rest before her next contract, had just been through the Christmas rush, and must have been exhausted. Some weeks, she said, were very hard, especially when they had difficult tables. But this cruise she was happy to get up each morning. She also said that everyone had to get up even earlier for the next week when the Jim Belushi program was on board, and that they would be in her rotation. The servers didnt know if they should be excited or should be dreading it
Tonights menu was the Best of. One last bottle of wine, the Chateauneuf. I had the artichoke dip, ever other adult went for the Seafood. Then I had the salad with watercress dressing, I love watercress. Not quite the same as fresh watercress, but good. I swiped an artichoke chip and part of the bacon wrapped date off Peters salad, ummm interesting combo. The kids had the chicken tenderloins from the adult appetizer list, one of the few times, other than salad, they ventured off the pasta-pizza kids menus, why I rarely bothered to record or report their meals. Whistler has entered the stage, like his older brother, where he wont try much new. He had been much more adventurous before (his favorite food is still pasta with my home-made basil pesto, though). I didnt push this at any meal, though, I figured it was their vacation, too, and we could have food fights back at home. Main dish for me was the red snapper, yummy. Peter and Rack had the seafood pasta, Gma skipping to the dessert. The pasta was loaded with sea food, and Adina had been telling Peter about it for several nights, he kept waffling over the pastas every night, and loves sea food. This is the one, as per Adinas advice, to wait for if you are a pasta and seafood lover, too. This was probably one of the most adventurous dishes. White and black (squid ink) pasta, lobster, clams, shrimp and scallops. The guys loved it. Dessert was just about everything on the menu, and the kids finally were hungry enough to eat a Mickey bar. Then, Adina and Anton brought out two celebration cakes. I had forgotten all about this. When I called DCL to enquire about our table location, the CM had asked if we were celebrating any special occasions. I said we had missed everyones birthdays, Peter and my 50th had come and gone and we had done nothing special. On our first cruise, Rack had turned 22 the day before we left, and I had forgotten to request the special cakes. Adina and Anton had brought his on the first night, and we had sung to him. Now it was Peters and my turn. The only problem was, we were all stuffed. We got the cakes wrapped to carry out. Everyone was pretty teary, the kids quite upset, saying almost good-bye to them. Then the crunch, we handed them their envelopes, gave Adina the one for MacLean, who had not surfaced during the meal (must have been putting out fires in the galley.) Assured them they did not need to worry about excellent ratings, the only time they even mentioned how important it was to fill out the survey. I finally felt comfortable pumping them a bit more about their future plans and hopes. These are both well educated, talented people who come from countries where there is not much chance for them to stretch their wings. I wish them the best. Maybe lots of kids for Adina, since she obviously loves them and knows how to spoil them rotten, success for her and her (very cute) brother (also a server on the Magic) and a nice career, reunion with his family for Anton and future success at what he would really like to do. Zouhair even dropped by to say goodbye, what a very nice man, someone lucky should snap him up. We fled, pretty choked up.
We did one last trip to the Treasure Ketch, where we bought a pair of white Caribbean topaz earrings for Peter to tuck away for me for Valentines day, and I bought a couple of pins for the kids and us, one of the DCL logo for 2004, edition of 750, one of Tink with a Disney Dreams title and two of the door of the Walter E. Disney Suite door, edition of 1,000, opening to revel Mickey. I was hoping for a Roy Suite, in honor of his sons recent valiant fight, but it was not yet available. We are not traders, but I hope these things will be valuable to the kids someday. This shopping was all in honor of, miracle of miracles, the pager charge NOT showing up on our bill; bless you Elizabeth or Sharon or Shea or whoever the kind soul was that made this happen. Then a bunch of running around to return the pager, and try to get things we had scattered about the ship, a signed pillowcase for Whistler and a signed Captain Tom ornament for us, which could not be located, then. Shutters to pick up our portraits, and something else but I couldnt remember what it was.
We went to the Farewell Variety show. The performers were Gary DeLena and juggler Max Winfrey. Mr. Winfrey had not appeared in Rockin Bar D. He was very funny, faking out his audience assistants. Kind of strange, I figured he must have boarded the ship late, along with the reels of Teachers Pet, which was also Prem-Earing tonight (and had been shown in the afternoon, too), but only at 10:30 P.M. Where did the film and the man come from, did they come over from Abaco with the excursion operators? One of the mysteries of this cruise which will probably remain so. We thought that the WWTBAM and the film schedule and the Rockin Bar D acts were pretty strangely scheduled the second half of the trip.
This show could use a bit of updating otherwise, though. At least some new costumes for the dancers and singers. I think most of our fellow cruisers must have agreed. The last cruise it was SRO and this time only half full. Tried to wake a sleeping Whistler for the finale, wondering what his brain would register. He remembers the Beauty and the Beast show at MGM from his toddler days as that show where they blow up the performers at the end and they turn into pigeons. Maybe he will remember this better. At least this trip he saw the beginning of most of the night shows, he had slept in the cabin for all of them on the last cruise.
Back to the cabin, put Whistler in his prized top bunk for the last time. Rack took Gameboy for one last precious night swim. Peter and I scraped the last detritus from the counter tops into the bulging corners of the suitcases and we chucked them into the hall. But only after one last check to make sure there was underwear and clothes for tomorrow so we would not have to appear at breakfast in our jammies. Peter went to check Guest Services again to see if the ornament had been found, no luck. Rack and Gameboy returned, we all crashed, hard, and I was only vaguely aware when the phone rang after 11:00. About 4:00A.M., I awoke, realizing the last forgotten errand was to get the Castaway Cay purchases. Tossed and turned until the last Mickey wake up call at 6:00. Turned out that the 11:00 call had been about finding the ornament, which Peter then ran down to get, still unsigned. He then tossed and turned for a long time afterward.
I know the last day has to be like this, Castaway Cay is close to Florida and St. Thomas, isnt. That it is a long haul back from the Eastern Caribbean. But how I wish the day at Castaway Cay does not have to end in this rush. Everyone is tired from the beach and there are all the normal activities you do not want to miss, this one, last, bittersweet time. Plus packing in a short time what took weeks to carefully press and accumulate before the trip and doing all the last minute chores. If there were some arrangement of islands that could make a sea day after Castaway Cay, or at least give you a morning to pack and not arise before dawn on the last day. I almost liked the method of having to wait in the common areas for an hour or two, reading in the sun, on a long ago NCL cruise, better. The early seating is great if you have small kids but really brutal the last day.
Coming .The end, at least of the cruise.
Tink
