Snorkeling and More

This is the view from our cabin, right off our veranda there.  We just step out, and there it is, a beautiful day at Castaway Cay.  Daddy made the traditional trip up to the top to get some hot tea for Mommy, and something to drink for Madison as well.  Our plans today were pretty open, which is to say we didn't have much scheduled.  But at the same time, we sure did a lot of fun things today, and it all started with a nice breakfast down at the Enchanted Garden.

Everyone was scurrying to get off the boat, but we were happy to take our time with a really nice breakfast together, and yes, we have napkin art on our heads too!  But once we were done, we headed back to the cabin, getting ready to get off the boat.

Check out this water spout we saw from the island.  It was just sitting there above us, and we were all collectively wondering... should we be concerned about this?  No worries though - it was just a waterspout, no big deal.  Right?

Our big mission here, or at least Daddy's, was to do some snorkeling.  Madison hadn't tried it before, and it's been a while for Mommy and Daddy.  It was a somewhat exhausting thing towards the end, as we were out there in the water for so long.  But we went out - way out - and got to see all the underwater sights.  Of course, there were plenty of fish out there to see, which was exciting for Madison to see.  But there were also these underwater landmarks to look at, including the Nautilus, a Mickey Mouse statue, and a Minnie Mouse one as well.  We saw it all in our swimming adventure, and when we were done, we were really done.  We didn't hang around Castaway Cove for too long today.  For one, the sun really can be punishing for Daddy and Mommy.  But the other thing is this:  there's a lot to do on the boat.

We took this picture for Madison's yearbook.  There's going to be a page dedicated to kids that are wearing their Chestatee Elementary School shirts in far off places.  Castaway Cove qualifies, so we packed the Chestatee shirt and took a quick photo in front of this buoy.  And then... we were back on board the Dream.  Look at one of the first things we did here:

We made parrot crafts!  This is one of the things I love about a cruise.  There are so many different things going on, and while people are snorkeling or parasailing or swimming upstairs, we were with quite a few other families, making these parrots, coloring in feathers, and gluing them all on.  There's a wristband as well, so you can have your parrot on your arm.  These were meant for us to wear to the pirate event, although instead we left them in our cabin, rather than try to keep up with them.

The next thing we did was Pirate Trivia.  Sensing a theme to our day yet?  You can see above that Mommy is wearing a medal, and that medal says "WINNER."  This was our first of three trivia victories on this cruise, although this one might have been the easiest.  There were questions about Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann, thrown together with legitimate historical questions about real pirates.  Given our knowledge about pirates in general, it wasn't that much of a stretch for us to get quite a few of these right!

After trivia, we had a quick bite to eat upstairs at Flo's Cafe, and Luigi's as well.  We also made sure we got on the Aquaduck again, riding it a few more times.  We were in the pool upstairs, and all of these things weren't that crowded at all.  The thinking was that everyone was on Castaway Cay, so things would be less crowded on deck.  And that's just the way it was.  We had a great time relaxing up there, with perfect weather too.  We were watching "Bolt," while in the pool there, which was all very nice. 

We did another Midship Detective Agency this afternoon as well, where Madison and Daddy were racing back and forth across the ship, and up and down the different floors.  It was the Disney edition, and this time it was Maleficent that did it.  We're getting quite good at this detective game, but Daddy was taking all kinds of notes because we'll be doing it at KidPak in just a few months as well.

So what was next?

"Nightmare Before Christmas" in 4D.  That just means it's a 3D movie, with a few enhanced effects, like snow falling from the ceiling at the end, and special lighting, and confetti in the shape of little Jack Skellington heads.  It's a tradition of ours to see this movie once a year, and this was the perfect way to do it this year.  It was a sing-a-long version, and Daddy was probably singing it the loudest.  We got popcorn, and sat together watching a movie.

After the movie, we were over to the Royal Palace again for another great dinner, this one a pirate-themed meal.  It was actually a really good meal with pirate names (like Larry), and not hard tack or anything like that.  The food is always so good, and Mommy does well with it, and there's no worries about dietary problems or anything like that at all.  The place was infested with pirates - this is the night we all dress up as pirates, and take over the ship!

Here we are with the captain of the ship, who we happened to run into in the lobby.  Sadly, he was not dressed up as a pirate captain.  But the piracy of the night was only just beginning.  We had our parrots made, and we won our pirate trivia.  We had our pirate meal and our pirate costumes looked great.  Now it was time to go play some pirate games!

Here's Madison on a team, playing different pirate relay races after spinning the "Wheel of Destiny."  It was a lot of fun for her and the other kids.  Moms and Dads had a blast watching the kids, and laughing at all the jokes.  Madison's team won, but this is the sort of activity where there are no losers.  Everyone had a great time!

When that was over with, we had to get upstairs quickly to see Jack Sparrow!

There he is!  Tonight he was tangling with some other pirates in a special show that had him jumping from great heights, cracking jokes, and in the end, obtaining a magical item that created a huge fireworks display in the sky.  

Madison, Mommy and Daddy were on the best side of the boat to watch all of this.  It's just amazing to see all the fireworks shooting off, and all of this in the middle of the Caribbean.  Nothing for miles around, and yet here we are, shooting off this intense fireworks show called the Buccaneer Blast.

It's great.  And it's also late, especially after a long day like today.  I'd like to tell you how we went to see the haunted ghost stories up on the top floor... but we were all ready to turn in after the fireworks. So down we went, and yes, our cabin had new towel animals for us.  We stopped by the photography booth tonight, and got some great pictures taken of us for the evening.

Here's Mommy and Daddy, ready to pillage and plunder!  And here we are below with Uma, the third pirate in our crew:

This is Madison's Halloween costume for the year, and it looks great.  It's also very hard to come by now.  We ordered that hat early, and we're very glad we did, because it's now over $100.  Anyway, she got a lot of compliments on her costume this evening, as did all of us.  We were a pirate crew, having a pirate blast today.

We said our prayers, and despite all that's going on this boat tonight, it was really easy to fall asleep.  We'll have another fun day tomorrow!