Contrary to his nature, Nigel was up EARLY on our day at sea.  He and I snuck out of the stateroom for some early morning roaming, fuseball, photos,

and pre-breakfast snack.  (We take sunscreen seriously.)

Around 8 AM he and I ducked into the theater to catch a DisneyNature film called Bears.  It worked out so well that pretty much the majority of family entertainment was on Deck 5, as our staterooms were Deck 5.  I sat with him a while then decided I’d go back to the room and see what everyone else was up to.  John was finished up his shower and the older girls were dressed.  I walked them to the theater and sat them in with Nigel (and the maybe 6 other people taking in an early morning movie), and I headed back to the stateroom to help get Katriel and Johanna up.  Stewart was sound asleep.  Around 9 A.M. I headed back to the theater to check on the kids and I saw the second Princess Gathering gathering.  This one was a mob scene.  Golly I’m glad we went on Tuesday. 

By 9:30 the movie was over and I helped John herd everyone to, yup, Cabanas for breakfast.  All but Stewart.  I dawned on me that he might be tired… but that he would be really disappointed if he slept through the last full cruise day.  At 9:44 A.M. I told him he was welcome to continue sleeping but I wanted him to know that it was 9:44.  He SHOT out of bed and moved rapidly on his own.  He did NOT want to miss any more of his day.  When he learned that Nigel had already watched an entire movie he was in disbelief!

We didn’t take a lot of photos this day.  I was busy doing “stuff”.  The kids visited in and out of their clubs and swam.  We grabbed lunch from all kinds of the on board food areas.  Sandwiches, salads, hot dogs, pizza, etc.  Later, I hung out with the little girls on Deck 9 while John and the kids went back to the theater to watch the Muppet movie once more.  John had left early the last time with Katriel.  Johanna opted to play in her club and Katriel opted to play with her shoes.  Actually – Katriel made friends EVERYWHERE we went.  The Cast Members (staff) at Disney parks have always been quick to engage children while parents eat, shop, etc., and it was no different on the ship. 

Nan, Kelly, Katriel, Johanna, and I took a walk all the way around Deck 4.  It was so cool to see ocean EVERYWHERE as far as the eyes could see. 

There was a “dance party” in the Atrium that confounded Johanna.  She didn’t want to dance with the characters.  She really wanted to hug them.  When she realized there would be no one-on-one bonding, she was done. 

We swam some more…

And headed to our room before the show to dress for dinner.
Of the four evenings at sea, three nights had stage productions and one had a comedian.  We skipped the first stage production because of the content (Villains), and we skipped the comedian.  The other two shows, “Twice Charmed,” (a twist on the Cinderella story), and “Disney Dreams,” were both nice productions.  I found them O.K. but the kids all liked them to varying degrees.  They did do some cool special effects and it is no high school production.  It was very upscale.  I’m just not that into Disney.  (Really.)

After the show we did our nightly torture privilege of taking photos. 

Including the sisters who didn’t want to pose because she wasn’t on the bottom step.

Katriel walked right up to these officers and just stood there facing them at first waiting to be picked up.  She does this with a lot of people.  They came down to her level instead. 

The non-Butler on the left was our Main Server, Genesis.  Yup, that is REALLY his name and he is a Christian.   He is from the Philippines.  On the right is Sorin, from Romania.  He was our Head Server.  (Over the whole dining room.)

This time on the right it is Joe.  He is from India.  He was our Assistant Server.  (He gets drinks, and helps clear, etc.)

Two desserts baby.  TWO. 

Like mother, like daughter! ♥

This was a shot of the empty theater. 

There was some melancholy this night… … …

Tomorrow we had to get off. 

Yup – that it was.  The best day of the cruise, anyway.

Like most cruise lines, Disney has a private island.  Most of the sailings that depart from east and gulf coast ports make at least one stop there.  John and I had nothing but amazing memories from our stop there in 2001.  We held Castaway Cay (pronounced key) dear in our hearts, but both acknowledged we had forgotten more about the island than we remembered. 

Again, I woke early and headed up on deck for a few photos.   

I loved getting shots of the empty decks.  They call that big movie screen “Funnel Vision” and even in the height of sunlight it was clear as can be.

I walked the long way to meet up with John and the kids for breakfast so I could take some shots as we were approaching the island.  As we began to dock I was mesmerized.  It was so pretty and inviting.  My mind clicked back that I needed to hurry up and eat so we could disembark as soon as they gave permission. 

Breakfast in Cabanas.  Again.  Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

We were off the ship pretty early, but I have no idea what time, really.  8:30? 8:45?

This. 

I felt like a kid in a candy shop.  I was just happy.  Very, very happy.  So glad to share this sand and sunshine and warmth with my favorite people.  We took the tram out to the more distant family beach.

We grabbed a complimentary wagon and a sand-friendlier-than-most stroller. 
John and the big four enjoyed Pelican Plunge.  Actually, Stewart, Nigel and Marie spent the most time out there. 

We had no trouble finding lounge chairs and Nan, Kelly, the little girls and I went to the beach/play area.  It felt a little more crowded than I had hoped.  None of us were interested in swimming per se so it didn’t really bother me. 

After a while we left John and the big three at Pelican Plunge and the rest of us went to check out the splash area. 

We splashed. 

We decided to explore a little bit and moseyed back toward the first family beach.

This was empty decidedly less crowded.  We seriously made ourselves at home in this area. 

Somewhere in here we took a break for lunch at Cookies.  They have two identical buffets set up on the island which are included in cruise fare.  They were delicious and we found the same attention to detail with food allergies there as we did on board.  They also had free standing beverage stations and soft-serve stations just like on board. 

At some point we decided to check out more of the island.  We did not rent bikes, or do the 5K, or parasail. 

We did rent these water trikes and took turns. 

Okay – truth be told John did all the escorting except for once when Marie and I went out.  God alone got us back to shore as my gams are pretty wimpy and Marie could barely reach the pedals.  I trust that they wouldn’t let us float out to sea.

Then more swimming. 

And a nap.

At 4:15 P.M. they announced that it was, well, 4:15 P.M.  And seeing as how they wanted all aboard at 4:45 P.M. we thought it wise to get moving out. 

We were not the LAST people to board.  But I know we were in the last 10%.  5%?

 

Saying good-bye was hard.  I positioned myself on deck as we were pulling away.  And I was sad.  Yup – another confession.  For a minute I did want to cry.  Then I grew up.  The ship had backed into place so we truly did pull away.  As I watched the island get smaller and smaller I just thanked God.  Over and over and over.  Nothing terribly meaningful at all.  Just genuine thanksgiving and awe that He had allowed that day to happen.  There is so much going on on His world.  And for reasons I will never deserve, He allowed our family this amazingly awesome day on this GORGEOUS ISLAND.  I accepted at that moment that I could very likely never see that island again ever, ever, ever.  And that just prompted me to thank Him some more. 

And you know what is SO good to remember?  That GORGEOUS, AMAZING ISLAND will look like gum on the bottom of my sandal compared to HEAVEN.  And Heaven?  I get to live there, FOREVER and EVER and EVER.  And I won’t be looking to any sun to warm me.  The SON will be life-giving FOREVER and EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As the island disappeared from sight (ships move much more quickly than I imagined) I headed back into our staterooms to pass out our pirate gear.  We’d worked all winter assembling our ensembles from stuff we picked up at Goodwill and WalMart.  They do a whole Pirates IN the Caribbean theme on most of their cruises. 

Before supper we stopped to dance for a few minutes.

This was my least favorite dinner.  I tried something new, which was good.  But I didn’t love it.  So there you go. 

Being a parrot is exhausting.

You HAVE to watch this short video…

UGH – YouTube is being ornery… I’ll post later

 

Stewart had another safe dessert. 

She never woke until the next morning.

She slept through the deck party.  (Tab was beat, too.)

And she slept through the fireworks.  THROUGH FIREWORKS.

Oceans make you tired. 

I didn’t take photos of the fireworks.  I was way too much enjoying FIREWORKS WHILE IN THE OCEAN.

You most likely will not see each of our individual characters, but we were delighted to see them come to LIFE.  That’s some amazing software.  It got done while we ate our dinner!