Pirates of Nassau

This morning we arose to look out the veranda at the beautiful ocean view before us.  I can't imagine getting used to this sort of view.  The vast expanse of ocean there, without a trace of humanity, and here we are in our pajamas overlooking it all.  As an extra touch of beauty, can you see the rainbow in the picture above.  All from our room, no less.

As we approached the Bahamas, Madison took advantage of the quiet and the view, seated and reading from her book.  She's reading "The Westing Game," something that really has her hooked.  Daddy sneaks upstairs as is the tradition, and gets Mommy a tea, and Madison a little something to drink as well.  As we get ready for our day, we rise at a leisurely pace.  We watched as Nassau grew closer, and saw the whole process where the cruise ship goes into the harbor, slowly turning around and backing up into the dock.  

We weren't due at any place at any time whatsoever, so we went back to the Enchanted Garden for a nice breakfast this morning.  We all got Mickey-shaped waffles, including Mommy, who got a whole bunch of gluten-free options for breakfast - and tea, of course.  

After the nice breakfast, we got off the boat - and it was pretty humid there in Nassau.  Here's Mommy and Madison in back of the Dream, ready to embark on a small adventure, also wearing their identical hats.

It's always a nice moment getting off the boat at some distant port, looking back at this massive cruise ship that towers over many of the buildings there in Nassau.  The Dream is a beautiful boat.

But we did have a goal in mind on the island.  Nothing huge like Atlantis, or even a return to Ardastra Gardens, or even a trip to dolphins or a beach.  Instead, our destination today was... PIRATES!

This was just a fun balance for the day, to be honest.  We wanted to do something on the island that didn't have too much of a commitment to it.  A lot of the other island excursions involved timed trips to beaches, casinos and waterslides.  These would be affected by the rain, it turned out.  We were just in the mood to head out for a bit to the island in the morning... and then come right back.  We looked up online and found out the pirate museum was still open, and remember that Madison hasn't been there yet, we made a quick trip to the Age of Piracy.

Again, this wasn't a Disney-backed excursion.  We just thought we'd check out the museum and learn a little bit about the history of pirates before heading back to the ship - tomorrow night is pirate night, after all.

Check out this guy here.  This pirate is on board the ship, looking at the eclipse!  That was a fun subtle nod to our recent adventure with the eclipse, although this was probably painted on the wall a long time before that.  Regardless, the museum itself is a nice, quick trip.  It's certainly a lot cheaper than the other excursions, and fairly easy to walk to on foot.  In fact, we walked past some of the stores we wanted to visit on the way back.  So it's all on the way, safe to get to, and not too far away. 

The information is interesting, with background stories on various pirates that are famous - and some perhaps a bit obscure.  As with any museum, you'll learn something if you spend enough time in there.  Which we did.  The indoors happened to be a good place for us to be as well, mainly because Mommy and Daddy aren't doing so well with extended stays in sunlight as it is.  And beyond that, it was starting to look overcast outside.  We had the museum to ourselves, largely, with just a few other visitors there.  Madison, Mommy and Daddy enjoyed it, taking pictures, reading, and saying things like "Arrr, ye scurvy rat!"

But next came the place that Madison was really wanting to return to.  It's called Del Sol, and she was looking forward to this store.  It features items that change colors in the sun, and she used some of her birthday money from her grandparents to get a necklace and a few other items, like fingernail polish.  Daddy still has a t-shirt from this place, which was doing pretty well.  A lot of other folks were here!

We left there, and the weather was much cooler and breezier outside.  There was a storm coming.  It's a good thing we were heading back to the boat, because as soon as we got there, the rain came!  We timed that just right.  Or, at least our Heavenly Father did.  It was perfectly planned, as we went back to our cabin for a bit, and then up to the top deck for grilled chicken at Luigi's.  Madison got pizza at Ramone's up there, and afterwards, we even spent a few moments in the jacuzzi.  And yes, after that, it was back to the Aqueduct again, and even more pool time for Madison, while Mommy and Daddy sat at a table just looking out over the ocean or the Nassau cityscape.

The rain didn't affect us at all.  We had plans to go to Disney Tunes Trivia, which we went to down at at the District, which was a place downstairs that we hadn't been to yet.  There was a big group of folks down there, and we had a lot of fun with that, almost winning it.  We were just one question away from winning, but the three of us had the greatest time.  

Right after that, we stuck around to do some family crafts.  The three of us were making masks, coloring in large cutouts of Minnie, Mickey, Pluto and Goofy.  There were plenty of other families with us, and it was neat doing something like this as a family.  We love going out to the water, and of course there was that already and plenty more time for that in the coming days.  But sitting together and being creative was a lot of fun.  By the end of the session, we had created our masks with the others.  They turned out great, and just in time for Mickey's Mousequerade Party.

Here are a few others with some great costuming ideas at the party.  They were the seagulls from "Finding Nemo!"  We didn't carry around the sticks with masks on them, but we did have some costumes on, and of course Madison had her Uma costume to wear.  Here she is, with someone dressed as Mal, and another dressed as Evie.  And yeah, there's a Cinderella in there for good measure!

The girls had a good time, squeezing around the overcrowded lobby, waiting in lines for candy at the various stations.  By the time we got through each station - and keep in mind we got there in time - there was no time for the other games.  That's how many people are there in this tiny area.  Daddy and Mommy had candy bags too, and we saw some people get there late - we gave them some of our candy, knowing some of the candy stations were already closed up.

It's not Disney's finest event.  Both times we've done this, you have this huge crowd of people compressed into this tiny area with long lines squeezing by other long lines waiting for candy stations.  There are games and music, but these are overcrowded too, and if you have any degree of claustrophobia, as I must have, it's not exactly the most fun you can have.  But it's not like were completely miserable or mad or anything - it's just not our first preference, to be so compressed like that.  STILL, Madison enjoyed it, particularly because she got to wear her Uma costume and get free candy.  We all did, taking it back to the room afterwards, and just in time to see a double rainbow outside our veranda.  

Soon we were off saying goodbye to Nassau, the three of us quite content with our day already.  Once more, we sailed away from this island.  I think Mommy and Daddy have been here about six times or so.  It's nice, but there's so much to do on the boat too.  The lighthouse you pass by is so small compared to the boat we're on.  But it looks nice, a glimpse into history.

In all our visits here, we have yet to visit Atlantis, which you can see in the background there.  I think part of this is because we've been to a lot of aquariums, and as far as water parks go, there's an Aqueduck and a pool on the boat, and slides at Castaway Cay, and beaches there too.  We just never got around to doing the Atlantis thing.  It's not a historical sort of thing, and doesn't really lend to the atmosphere of the islands so much.  And... of course... it costs more.

So we were sailing off, and getting ready for dinner too.  While Mommy took a quick nap, Daddy and Madison embraced the upcoming mystery theme at KidPak, and did the Midship Detective Agency hunt.  We did this twice during the cruise, this first time with the Muppets, as you can see below.

This was a lot of fun, and gave us all kinds of ideas for a future event at KidPak, which you might see here soon enough.  As it stands, in this particular mystery, it was Sam the Eagle that did it, although that answer changes from game to game.

The sun was slowly setting, and it was getting closer to time for dinner.  We were getting hungry too, believe it or not.  We went back to see Mommy, and the three of us took a leisurely stroll down, and walked about because we were just a little bit early, we played a game of shuffleboard together on the deck, while watching the sun set.

The decorations on the boat are fun, and festive.  This picture is nice, showing a bit of sparkle as the descending sunlight catches the drops on the web.  Madison and Mommy were on some of those deck chairs, and tonight we caught a glimpse of something we hadn't seen before.

We've seen the sun set before, but we've never seen THE GREEN FLASH.  Tonight, we did.  I can confirm to you that it is real.  Just before the sun sets over the horizon of water, right between being visible and disappearing over the end of the earth, you can see only for a blink of an eye... a GREEN FLASH.  Of course, this was only brought to our attention because of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.  And ever since then, whenever we're in a situation where we can see the sun set over the horizon, we've been looking for that GREEN FLASH.  We've never seen it.  Until now, of course.  It wasn't a brilliant flash like you see in the movies, there was a change of color, and it was in fact a GREEN FLASH.  Pretty cool stuff.  Madison can now say she saw the GREEN FLASH.

Moving on.  Dinner time had arrived, and tonight, we went to the Royal Palace for another fantastic meal.  Mommy can eat whatever she desires with no repercussions, as Daddy can too.  So many great meals!

We got back to the cabin, and there was our folded towel, hanging from the curtain like a monkey with a pair of sunglasses on it.  The room was prepared for bed, but we weren't quite ready for that yet.

After dinner, we actually had time to do a few things.  First, a game show.  Yes, Daddy wanted us to go to something called Mirror, Mirror.  This was a game show for a family, and it was so much fun.  Madison talked about this a lot afterwards.  She was one of the team captains, and got to help collect jewels from the mine, as well as answer trivia questions with the rest of the team.  There were seven teams, because there were seven dwarves of course.  And Dopey made an appearance as well.  From time to time, the Magic Mirror would announce results or talk about what would happen next, and throughout the entire occasion there were lots of laughs and fun.  It was a great game.  We may not have won that one, but it was a game where everyone had a great time.  

The last thing of the night was funny because we thought we were done.  Mommy and Daddy were done, of course.  But at dinner tonight, Madison's new friend Sophia invited her to the Oceaneer's Club to do some Wacky Science.  Daddy dropped her off for the play date, and immediately went upstairs with Mommy for a few moments of quiet in the room - we plugged in a movie, "Oz the Great and Powerful."

Madison had a great time there tonight, ultimately making some Flubber.  It glows in the dark, and it's in a bag now in the refrigerator here in the cabin.  She had a great time there.  But that's been the whole day, pretty much.  It's been so much fun, and so full and yet at times very relaxing and laid back.  We've made some happy memories today, and still have a few days to go on this cruise.

Tonight we said our grateful prayers, watching over the dark expanse of ocean as our ship cruised northward towards our quiet uninhabited destination, Castaway Cay.